When Effort is High But Performance is Low
Feedback is the issue when effort is high but performance is low.
Poor performance persists until feedback – awareness and development – confronts it.
Feedback protects people from spinning their wheels. Effort, apart from feedback, digs ruts for potential.
Performance is leadership’s responsibility.
Performance begins with hiring the right people and includes relationships, environments, and feedback.
10 causes of poor performance:
- Inept management.
- Low skill.
- Deficient desire.
- Limited opportunity.
- Insufficient instruction.
- Red tape.
- Inadequate resources.
- Poor time management.
- Unrealistic workload.
- Interpersonal conflict.
Poor feedback is another key reason people persistently perform poorly.
4 symptoms of poor feedback:
- Personal attack.
- Long after the fact.
- Problem-centric.
- One sided. Manager does all the talking.
A coaching approach to feedback:
The purpose of feedback is joyful performance.
Telling people what’s wrong and what to do doesn’t strengthen performance or increase joy, over the long-term.
The three objectives of feedback:
- Participation. Asking, not telling, invites participation.
- Insight. Describing, not judging, opens minds to insight.
- Energy. Purpose, not compliance, ignites energy.
The secret to giving feedback as a coach:
Traditional feedback typically begins with behaviors. Coaching feedback begins with purpose.
Purpose gives meaning to feedback.
- What were you trying to accomplish?
- Why does it matter? Feedback, apart from shared purpose, is one person imposing their opinion on another.
- What did you do to achieve your purpose? Introduce behaviors after identifying shared purpose, not before.
- What went well?
- What went poorly?
- What would you like to avoid next time?
- What would you like to try next time?
- How?
- When?
- How often?
- What else?
- Who might have expertise in this area?
- What aspects of this conversation should we discuss next time?
Descriptive feedback:
I noticed you (describe behavior).
- What were you trying to accomplish? (Purpose.)
- How did it work?
- What behavior might take you to the next level?
Successful feedback maximizes potential and increases fulfillment.
What characterizes feedback that helps you?
What is essential for successful feedback?
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Some excellent points are made in this post about feedback. Really good food for thought. I would add another reason for poor performance, though. I have seen examples of employees who avoid holding their direct reports accountable because they don’t want to be seen as the bad guy. This is a real issue that is difficult to address. There is a real need for training on having the difficult discussions that need to be had so that things get done.
Thanks Beth. I’m glad you added your insights to the conversation. The things we can’t talk about reflect the limits of our development. However, we all need someone who helps us deal with tough issues.
Feedback is NOT simply “coaching.” That is actually a pretty IN-effective version of performance feedback, since it is delayed and generally way too general to impact performance. What you need to do is create loops to get the performer information about their performance. Since 90% of men believe they drive with above average skills, obviously the belief about performance is much much higher than the actual results.
What if you could not hear the piano notes you played for 5 seconds. How well would you learn how to play?
I wrote a blog about Performance Feedback a couple of years ago that includes a self-diagnostic checklist. You might use that in a workplace discussion to get people talking about best practices and ideas for improvement, along with opening some eyes about what feedback really is.
http://performancemanagementcompanyblog.com/2013/04/26/performance-feedback-breakfast-of-champions/
Thanks Dr. Scott. I value your feedback. (No pun intended.) The idea of loops seems central to effective feedback.
“Performance begins with hiring the right people…”
Time spent on careful selection is definitely an investment in performance. For me, one of the most stressful parts of leadership was discovering that we had not selected “the right people” and then making sure that we gave those people every reasonable chance to perform as required before making the decision to terminate them. Not to be heartless or inhumane, but the time spent trying to finesse square pegs into round holes often is one of the most performance-sapping activities in which organizations engage.
Thanks Jim. Some organizations hire too fast and fire too slow. If we reversed the order and hired slower – with greater care – we might find that terminating people would happen less frequently. Cheers
“Are you getting any traction with this?” -is a phrase I’ve come to like..
followed by “when did you feel you were moving forward?” coupled with “were you making progress?” -Hopefully to discern if the progress was actual or just a feeling – both optimists and pessimists can be fooled by feelings.. Finding the sweet-spot of what’s actually happening is important from a management perspective, and understanding the individual from a leading perspective.
Thanks Ken. I love your questions. “When did you feel like you were moving forward?” … good one! I’ve learned that emotion is an important component of performance and satisfaction at work.
I had a thought the other day – what if we let employees complete their own Performance Review and then compared it to one prepared by the Supervisor. This would be a great way to see where the views on performance differ and where improvement is needed. It would be a great way for the supervisor to see what the employee thinks he is delivering to the organization. . . .just a thought. 🙂
What I usually see as a cause of poor feedback is a leader’s inability to motivate his people.
Only a genius can write this kind of post. Genius level work. Thank you for this great post.
Hi Sgt. Steve: Your comments on trust and integrity with respect to feedback have not fallen on deaf ears. I think a lot of us hear them loud and clear. Feedback has no meaning or power with our staff members unless they trust our integrity…our worthiness to have a sincere relationship with them, to be responsible for teaching
essential insights, and for guiding and heightening them properly.
And I also believe we sometimes do, in fact, take trust and integrity for granted, as if we’ve already earned it and it no longer needs to be nurtured. I believe you’re right:
Trust ultimately is faith in the person of leader and hope in their promise. We believe in order to understand, and we understand in order to believe in both leader and organization.
Like Dan has said many times: People don’t leave companies, they leave managers!
The way we get meaning into our life is to devote ourselves to what gives us purpose and meaning. One way a leader can do this is via insightful feedback.
Good afternoon Dan;
Excellant post today my freind. Giving Feedback isn’t coaching, mentoring, or pointing out the mistakes & miscalculations of others. It’s about compassionatley sharing idea’s & insights with others that ultimatley lead the individual, your Team, and your Organization to new heights.
(HOWEVER), ‘Leaders’, before we can exspect others to accept, or follow our advice you must make connection between you and your people. This connection starts with Integrit, and ends with Trust.We humans are a funny bunch. Rarely do we take advice or give much credibility to those we do not trust.
Advice or feedback is a funny thing. It can be given humbly and with the very best of intentions. But unless trust and integrity have already been established, “chances are youer compassionate feedback is falling on DEAF-EARS…
Headed to the Academy tomorrow and Friday to continue our work on Character-Based Leadership Development.
“My-O-my, what a positive difference it makes in the workplace regarding effort & enthusiasm when the job we have IS THE THING WE LOVE TO DO …”
Cheers Dan
SGT Steve
You mentioned ‘insufficient instruction’ as being a cause of poor performance…I would also add ‘too much instruction’…Micromanaging supervisors can create conditions in which employees develop feelings of self-doubt and lower confidence.
Dan, this is a great piece of work on feedback, as well as leadership interpersonal skill and relations. In your words and in the general scenario you created here I can see how effort is rewarded, how potential of all levels of learners is recognized, and how perhaps even “critical inquiry” is valued. Reminds me of relationship building…all key to what YOU always tout as performance success: Inward reflection and outward expression.
Notice that typically, traditional feedback also tends to be statements that suggest (or more – e.g., orders) changes to be made. Coaching feedback on the other hand tends to be a series of questions!
Resentment or worse arise from traditional feedback. If one is to improve, to learn, there needs to be those questions that trigger the self-assessment necessary for improving / learning.
Just as I am reading this post got a feedback from one of my close confident as to how poorly feedback was given by his boss. No effort made to find out the reason for failure and how he can help in conquering it. Instead blame is laid on the team. What kind of message is the boss trying to send as a leader? I am sure the idea is not to disintegrate the team. The way things are put across matters.
This is such a great post and clearly shows the elements of good feedback. I don’t think anybody intends to make things worse by the way feedback is provided, but many times that is the result when the employee becomes demoralized after giving a major effort and feeling attacked.
I used this to examine my own performance.