The Art of Feedback

Stéphane Brutus and Sam Manoogian

Over the past twenty-five years more than fifty thousand managers have attended CCL's six-day Leadership Development Program (LDP). One of the most powerful moments of LDP takes place on the fifth day, Thursday, when each participant has a one-on-one session with a feedback specialist, sometimes called a feedbacker. At this session the assessment material collected prior to and during the program is shared with the participant.

Each session is unique. For example, the feedback for one person might be that he or she is introverted, has a high need for affection, has a tendency to be dominant in social situations, has low job satisfaction, and is rated high on interpersonal skills by a supervisor but low by peers. This pattern is drawn from scales in five different instruments. Participants receive feedback on more than seventy-five scales drawn from ten instruments. The potential combinations of all the scores are virtually infinite, so each person will receive very different information.

In brief, here is what happens during a feedback session: The participant and a specialist sit in a private room with a tape recorder, a file full of test results, and three hours of time. The goal is to review the participant's data—some of which have been communicated during the program (although most have not). The specialist aims not only to describe these data but to integrate them into the self-knowledge of the participant. You might be surprised that one of the most emotionally powerful insights to come out of these sessions is the recognition of one's strengths, often accompanied by a corresponding and dramatic improvement in self-esteem. This can be a time to let go of long-held beliefs about oneself that are simply no longer accurate, useful, or favorable. The knowledge that you no longer need to be working on some issues can be liberating.

Recently, we interviewed a dozen feedback specialists in order to get a better idea of how they accomplish the impressive task of condensing and reporting all of the information collected for an LDP. We found that the following were essential ingredients for a successful feedback process.