Vertical Growth

14Giving and receiving conscious feedback

‘Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care, for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.’

Buddha

My very first 360° assessment group feedback session with a leader and his team was a steep learning experience. Given that we always aim for challenger safety in our programs, we help our clients take anonymous ratings from a 360 report and turn them into real discussions. As we say to our clients, we are aiming for a culture where anonymous assessments of any kind become obsolete because it is always safe to raise issues without needing the safety of anonymity.

In these group feedback sessions, our job is to help maintain psychological safety in the room in various ways. But given this was my first time, some glaring gaps in our process were very quickly exposed, most particularly around how feedback is given.

I sat in the front of the room with the leader, with his team members in a semicircle around us. The data from his assessment was clear: he needed to improve in a few key areas. However, when team members gave him feedback in this live session, it came out in vague and accusatory terms. It was great that they felt courageous enough to speak up, but the actual content of their feedback — such as ‘You need to be less controlling’, ‘You should stop micromanaging’ and ‘You need to trust us more’ — was simply not helpful.

The leader predictably responded each time by rationalising and excusing his behaviour. ...