"In the theatre, the actor is given immediate feedback." | ||
| --Charles Keating | ||
In this chapter, I will demonstrate a general feedback model for regular use with your staff. You don't have to follow the exact framework given here, but you should consistently incorporate feedback into your routine as a new manager. Again, this model is just one way of applying the core principles of feedback, and the later chapters will detail models that are better suited to other, more specific situations.
In this chapter, you will:
- Meet Brian, who taught me more about management and leadership than anyone else
- Learn about a yearly feedback structure to help build high performing teams
- Learn how to use the WIN model of feedback
- Apply your new feedback skills when writing "grown-up" appraisals
My second management assignment was to lead a team of technical designers who sat at computer terminals for most of the day, designing schematic networks for large complex engineering systems. Unusually, there was an opportunity for this almost "back office" team of technical people to become a leading group in the department, driving forward the technical aspects of the programs that we delivered. I was really looking forward to the move. I had only been in management for six months, but my new bosses wanted me to head up the team and really shake things up. I sat with the outgoing manager to discuss the team's current workload and to understand more about the personalities within the team. Then he delivered a crushing blow: he had agreed to bring Brian into the team.
Brian was a very experienced designer who had worked all over the world for some really large corporations and in some very exotic locations. He had been with this particular organization for some ten years or so, and he knew a lot about the industry. However, there were three immediate challenges:
- He was rather argumentative, and seldom admitted to being wrong.
- He made frequent mistakes in his work.
- He was prone to falling asleep at his desk.
Now number 1 I could cope with; a bit of spirited debate and technical conflict was in fact a good thing. Number 2 I was prepared to work with, but number 3 was a bit of a mystery. How on earth had this situation been allowed to carry on? It had become somewhat of a department joke, and it was down to me to fix it.
I could probably write an entire book on my management adventures with Brian, however at this stage, it's probably enough to state the conclusion that some of you will already have jumped to: Brian was not getting regular and actionable feedback about both his results and behavior at work. Boy was I about to shake things up!
We'll pick up the story with Brian again before the end of the chapter, but for now I'd like to share with you the structure that I have successfully and repeatedly used to give direction and feedback to my teams.