107
Chapter 12
Feedback for Claire
Eliza had one nal piece of business that she wanted
to talk with Claire about, and it involved another of her
golden nuggets—giving effective feedback. Eliza had
recently been reviewing Claire’s performance evalua-
tions for her customer service team. In fact, she made
it a point to evaluate all of the performance evaluations
in the company, feeling that it was a good indication
of the performance goals of her management team in
addition to being a window into how well the rank-
and-le staff was performing.
In reviewing the evaluations from Claire’s customer
service department, she noticed that they differed sig-
nicantly from those of the production, sales, account-
ing, and HR teams, where managers had established
clear, quantiable performance goals:
108 ◾ Transforming Teams
◾ Sales representative will make no fewer than 20
cold calls per week.
◾ Performance technician will address and repair 98
percent of module anomalies within 24 hours.
◾ Accounts payable will not exceed net 15 days on
average for any month.
◾ HR representative will ensure 90 percent of quarterly
performance reviews are complete and on time.
Claire’s, however, were quite different:
◾ Customer service rep will be friendly and
responsive.
◾ Customer service rep will ensure customers are
satised and have their questions addressed in a
timely manner.
◾ Customer phone inquiries will be promptly
addressed and replied to.
While Eliza agreed with the direction and underly-
ing approach to the goals that Claire was setting for
her team, she could also see that they were vague
and thereby difcult to quantify and track. How will
Claire evaluate whether the service rep is “friendly
and responsive”? Is she tracking customer satisfac-
tion and call response times? Does the service rep
know what the term timely manner really means? In
contrast, the other division managers had very clearly
delineated goals with measurements that Eliza knew
were tracked in the client management, accounting,
and HR information systems. During performance
Feedback for Claire ◾ 109
management evaluations, she knew they would be
able to quantify and assess performance from a data-
base. But Claire would not be able to do that with the
goals she had set.
Reecting on Claire’s evaluations, Eliza began think-
ing about whether she had ever seen or heard of Claire
providing effective verbal feedback. Sure, it’s one thing
to give performance feedback to an employee during
his or her annual review, but what about the 364 days
in between? Formal performance reviews are simply
not sufcient to manage and guide behavior effectively
on an ongoing basis.
She decided now was the time to talk the matter
over with Claire.
“Do you have a few more minutes for me?” asked
Eliza before Claire rose to leave.
“Sure,” replied Claire.
“Great. First, thank you for completing your perfor-
mance evaluations on time. I never have to ask you
to do them, which means that your folks get on-time
reviews and on-time salary adjustments. And that mat-
ters a lot to them and to me,” said Eliza. “Your reliabil-
ity and dependability matter to me, to your employees
and, most of all, to our clients.”
“Thank you. I’m really pleased that you notice and
think it’s important. I think it’s very important to get
those in on time.”
“So do I. It may seem like a little thing, but it mat-
ters a great deal. May I make some observations about
some of your performance evaluations?” Eliza asked.
“Yes, please.”
110 ◾ Transforming Teams
“I’m somewhat concerned that they were not spe-
cic and quantiable enough to serve as a basis for
an effective performance review. From my assessment,
too many of the goals are vague and subject to inter-
pretation, such as the goal that the service rep will be
‘friendly and responsive.’ By whose standards? How
frequently? I’d like you to spend some time thinking
about how to make your performance standards more
quantiable and clear for your team.”
“Sure,” said Claire. “I’m not sure how we might
quantify some of these things, but I’m happy to explore
it some more.”
“Thanks. I think it’s doable. And I’m happy to help
you if you need it. There are always ways to quantify
behavior—you just have to be creative. I also want to
talk with you about the larger topic of giving feedback.
Do you think you give feedback sufciently to your
team?” asked Eliza.
“Yes, I think I do. When my folks are late or leave early
without permission, I have conversations with them. And
when we see that someone on the team has made a mis-
take or messed up, we deal with it directly and promptly.
Why? Do you think I don’t give sufcient feedback?”
“I don’t know. I can’t assess that because I haven’t
been in a position to hear you provide it. Let me ask you
this: what would you say are the most important duties
of a manager as it relates to managing your team?”
Claire thought for a moment. “I guess they would
be to tell folks what they have to do, set those goals,
and then to correct them when things go off the rails,”
she said.
Feedback for Claire ◾ 111
“Well, I think there are ve specic and distinct duties
of managers,” said Eliza as she ticked them off her ngers.
“1. Like you said, set clear and well-dened perfor-
mance expectations.
2. Ensure your employee has the tools, skills, and
knowledge to do what is expected of her. (And be
sure to listen . . . listen for her concerns, hesitations,
and acceptance.) We often forget to do this.
3. Monitor and observe the employee’s performance
frequently.
4. Provide frequent feedback—both positive and cor-
rective—and listen. This is where most of us fall
down in our managing responsibilities.
5. Celebrate (or hold the employee accountable for)
the performance that you observe, and listen.”
Eliza sat back and waited for a reaction from Claire.
“You have them listed in your head?” asked Claire.
“Actually, I do,” Eliza responded. “I’m very clear
about it because, otherwise, I get distracted by the
drama or the emotions or the stress of the day-to-day
responsibilities of being a leader. But I’ve found that if
I’m really clear about my duties, I can avoid a lot of the
muck that goes along with managing people.”
She continued. “Like I said, the one step that I think
most managers overlook most frequently is giving
effective feedback. Most managers reserve giving feed-
back for when they are trying to correct or punish a
behavior or action. And, even then, the feedback they
give is usually either insignicant or abusive. Yelling
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