Giving feedback
And how do you give feedback?
Answered by Carol Bartz, Yahoo
I have the puppy theory. When the puppy pees on the carpet, you say something right then because you
don’t say six months later, "Remember that day, January 12th, when you peed on the carpet?" That doesn’t make any
sense. "This is what’s on my mind. This is quick feedback." And then I’m on to the next thing. If I had my way I
wouldn’t do annual reviews, if I felt that everybody would be more honest about positive and negative feedback along
the way. I think the annual review process is so antiquated. I almost would rather ask each employee to tell us if
they’ve had a meaningful conversation with their manager this quarter. Yes or no. And if they say no, they ought to
have one. I don’t even need to know what it is. But if you viewed it as meaningful, then that’s all that counts.
This answer originally appeared in Imagining a World of No Annual Reviews »
Talk about your learning curve when you first started managing others.
Answered by Susan Lyne, Gilt Groupe
I think my tendency initially was always to be really nice with my requests or my comments on
something. And I would always preface whatever critique I had with, "My opinion, not necessarily right," and I
realized pretty quickly that that was not going to get the result that I wanted. So just dropping the preface and saying,
"This is what I think this needs," was a big a-ha moment.
This answer originally appeared in Want to Talk to the Chief? Book Your Half-Hour »
Was that a hard adjustment?
Answered by Susan Lyne, Gilt Groupe
I think it has always been. My biggest challenge as a manager over all has always been moving from the
nice to the "this is what we're going to do." And I still always like to get input, listen to what people have to say. But
it's really clear that the decision has to be made at some point, and I'm a whole lot more comfortable with that now
than I was 25 years ago.
This answer originally appeared in Want to Talk to the Chief? Book Your Half-Hour »
Are there any bosses you've had through the years that taught you something particularly memorable, good or
bad?
Answered by Lawrence W. Kellner, Continental Airlines
One of my first bosses was nice and friendly during the whole job, didn't say a word. And then I got this
performance review at the end with comments that would have been nice to know during the process. One, I didn't
agree with him, but two, it didn't matter. He was the boss and I fully respected that, but it's kind of hard for me to
read his mind. He made me look like I did a terrible job, and yet I walked into the room thinking that this would be
pretty good feedback. And so I learned an important lesson about communicating up front, right away, and I think
that was probably reinforced by my best bosses. They gave me lots of feedback as I was going along, so even if things
didn't work out perfectly, it sure wasn't a surprise when we talked about where we were.
This answer originally appeared in Bad News or Good, Tell Me Now »
Talk about the art of giving feedback.
Answered by Lawrence W. Kellner, Continental Airlines
Short, clear and direct. My general view is the first time I tell you something -- I mean it may just be
my view of the world -- that's not a bad one on you. If I keep telling you the same thing and you keep doing the other
thing, that's when we have a much tougher discussion.
This answer originally appeared in Bad News or Good, Tell Me Now »
Talk about how you give feedback to employees.
Answered by Maigread Eichten, FRS
One of the most memorable things one of my bosses at Pepsi told me was that if you really care about
somebody, you give them constructive feedback. And if you don't care about somebody, you only say positive things.
That's stuck with me all this time. So I really try to make sure that I give people good, constructive feedback -- positive
first, of course, then constructive, and I give it in real time. It's got to be in the moment. It's got to be private.
This answer originally appeared in The C.E.O. Must Decide Who Swims »
What do you mean by "confronter?"
Answered by Carol Smith, Elle Group
I have been in this career for many years and I have seen, and this is a generalization, that women are
better list-makers. They will do their to-do list. They will prioritize their to-do list. They will get through their to-do
list. Maybe it's because we do shopping lists. And if we have a problem -- again, as a generalization -- we will confront
the problem and deal with it head-on. I think that has really made me good at managing people, because I think they
always know that they're going to get a real answer.
This answer originally appeared in No Doubts: Women Are Better Managers »
Can you elaborate?
Answered by Carol Smith, Elle Group
When you're about to give someone a bad review, they pretty much know it. They might not know they
know it, but they know it. Do I always start out with a positive? Yeah. But if there isn't any positive, I'm not going to
try to find it if there isn't anything. I will always give them my point of view and my side, and I will always keep the
door open to hear their side, and I will always end with, "Here's what you have to do to correct it." Confrontation -meaning, "You didn't do a good job. That presentation was bad. It didn't work, and here's why it didn't work" -- is so
much better than walking away from a sales call saying, "Great. Got to get back to the office, O.K.?" It's better for
everyone and I've never understood why people won't do it.
This answer originally appeared in No Doubts: Women Are Better Managers »
Do you have thoughts on the art of giving that kind of feedback?
Answered by David C. Novak, Yum Brands
The best way to give feedback is to start out with, "This is what I appreciate about you." They might
have great strategy, good vision, they're good at execution, or whatever you think they're really doing well. When you
start out by talking to people about what they're doing well, that makes them very receptive for feedback because at
least you're giving them credit for what they've done. Then I say, "And you can be even more effective if you do this." I
think that really works.
This answer originally appeared in At Yum Brands, Rewards for Good Work »
It sounds as if there's an important distinction between the words "and" and "but."
Answered by David C. Novak, Yum Brands
I think "but" can be a killer word. "And" really recognizes the appreciation part. If you say "but," it
throws all the appreciation stuff out the window.
This answer originally appeared in At Yum Brands, Rewards for Good Work »
How do you give feedback to the people you manage?
Answered by Will Wright, Stupid Fun Club
A lot of the people I've managed -- artists, programmers, producers -- they don't want to know just if
they are doing a good job or not. They want to be pushed and challenged in their career. So, if they feel like you are
presenting things to them in such a way that, a year later, they are definitely going to be a better artist or a better
programmer, then it really feels like a win-win. Even if you give them tough critical feedback, they see the benefit and
value of it, as opposed to just a typical performance review.
This answer originally appeared in On Will Wright's Team, Would You Be a Solvent, or the Glue? »
How did you come to appreciate the difference?
Answered by Will Wright, Stupid Fun Club
For a lot of people, their job and their position are not the relevant part of how they see themselves.
They have an internal view of themselves, their career aspirations, the direction they want to go. The really important
motivational stuff is more in their secret identity.
This answer originally appeared in On Will Wright's Team, Would You Be a Solvent, or the Glue? »
And how do you get a sense of that?
Answered by Will Wright, Stupid Fun Club
A lot of that has to do with talking to them. You want to spend a fair amount of time exploring their
interests, what they do outside of work. Usually people always have some passion that really drives them. And this to
me is one of the important points of working collaboratively with other people -- trying to get a sense of what is the
one thing that makes their eyes light up, they get excited about and they won't stop talking about. And if you can get a
sense of what that is from somebody, and you can harness that, that's going to have more impact on how they perform
their job, how they relate to you, how you can convey a vision to them in a way that they get excited about it. For me
that's the real key to a lot of this stuff -- exploring and understanding the personal passions that people working with
you have.
This answer originally appeared in On Will Wright's Team, Would You Be a Solvent, or the Glue? »
What was your approach when you first started managing people?
Answered by Dany Levy, DailyCandy.com
I joke sometimes that everything I needed to know about management I learned from working with
emotionally disturbed kids, which I did for two summers. I don't mean this in a negative way or derogatory way. But
there are some basic principle human skills that I learned about this, like the criticism sandwich -- praise,
constructive criticism, praise.
This answer originally appeared in In Praise of All That Grunt Work »
What did you learn from running human resources?
Answered by Anne M. Mulcahy, Xerox Corporation
One was that you discover quickly how little honest feedback people get in companies, and how
important it is for people to have a sense of candid assessment. It became very much a mantra for me, to kind of
influence a culture that assessed people accurately and really dealt with people fairly. The other piece is the
importance of talent development. Not everybody is created equal, and it's important for companies to identify those
high potentials and treat them differently, accelerate their development and pay them more. That process is so
incredibly important to developing first-class leadership in a company. I think sometimes companies get confused
with egalitarian processes that they think are the fairest, and that is not what companies need. Companies need to be
very selective about identifying talent and investing in those leaders of the future.
This answer originally appeared in The Keeper of That Tapping Pen »