Disseminate a feedback culture in organizations

Aude Bohu, Associate Director of Talentis and Executive Coach, explains to us how to spread a feedback culture in organizations.

“So today, feedback is indeed a real subject in organizations. We have been in great demand for three or four years to support teams, groups of managers or even employees, in order to develop a regular practice of feedback, whether positive or developmental. In order to open a much more regular dialogue beyond end-of-year evaluations or mid-year evaluations between collaborator managers or even between teammates in the same team.

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What are the benefits of giving feedback?

‍So the benefits of giving feedback are multiple. And first of all, what I would like to specify in any case in our vision of feedback at Talentis is that feedback works as a sign of recognition. A sign of recognition of who the person is, what they do well and what they could do better.

So if we talk about positive feedback for example, interests, it will be about strengthening the person in their positive beliefs about themselves as a human being, or in what they are capable of achieving, in the projects that they will bring to fruition. So, it's reinforcing a positive belief about yourself and, as a result, it's about nurturing self-esteem and self-confidence.

Development feedback will have the advantage and positive impact of giving the person new ways of doing things, new possibilities. So to grow, to develop in your role, to develop in your job, to go further and therefore at one moment to another, to sail towards other horizons.

And finally, there is also reframing feedback, which is feedback that is often about behavior, which will reframe behavior that does not seem adjusted and that the person will demonstrate in several situations and that is not adjusted and adapted to the environment in which the person evolves.

Moreover, developing a practice of regular feedback, the other advantage of this, is that you do not reach the end of the year or the middle of the year with a pile of feedback to give to your collaborator or manager or even to your peers. And this greatly simplifies the interviews that I will be able to have, it builds trust between the people in addition and it makes it possible to feed any blind spots that everyone could have.

Feedback works a bit like, I'm going to raise the goldfish I have in my back on April 1. Because there are things that I am going to do or there are things that are going to be more or less good. If it is very good, I am never told, at one time or another, I finally find myself in a somewhat complicated situation. Do I know that I do this very well and that it is really my talent? So it's important to be told.

Then if there are things that I do that are not great, that I could improve, as much as I am told, like that, it will allow me to grow. Otherwise, I remain unaware of the fact that I don't do this thing well, but I'm not told it. Then, if not they tell me, let's say after, or after a month, or six months, I finally have less opportunity to develop, grow and do better.

This is why it is important to have this regular practice that will work on self-confidence, development, make people grow and then also between people, optimize collaboration. Because we give each other feedback between peers, from one moment to another, it develops better mutual knowledge, it develops fluidity in communication. And this fluidity in communication will inevitably generate the best performances beyond individual feedback, which also contributes to the performance of the company and to individual performance.

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‍How do you give good feedback?

‍The approach and the structuring will be the same whether it is development feedback, positive feedback, or reframing feedback. There are indeed a few things to follow in order to have the most impact possible. First of all, what we recommend is to carefully separate the moments when I give positive feedback, when I give development feedback and when I give reframing feedback.

When I say the moments, obviously when we are in an evaluation interview at the end of the year, we are actually going to repeat the objectives and give feedback on each of the objectives. But if not, as far as possible, it's really about taking a good look at a situation, observing it with elements that are tangible and clarifying the intention I have in the feedback.

I want to give this feedback “positive”, I want to give it “development”, but why? So clarification of his attention. That's really the first thing that's important. Then, it's always asking yourself the question, is this feedback useful for the person or not? If it is not useful, probably allow yourself not to give it.

The second is to really clarify your emotions as well. I can be on the receiving end of an emotion when something has happened, a positive emotion, but an emotion that can also be negative. I can be mad. I can be sad. It is really important to clarify this, so to manage your own emotion before going into a feedback interview. This will give you a lot more power when you are going to do it.

Then it's time to get ready. It is essential to be prepared when giving feedback. By taking observations, by using tangible and specific elements so that the person can better appropriate and understand it. If you come up with elements that are very vague, you are very likely that the person will not take this feedback.

So: precise element, observation, being as concrete as possible and as simple as possible. There's no need to add nice words. Often, we tend to leave with arguments. We are not argumentative when we give feedback, we are objective and factual. It's also something important: prepare, get ready, get ready.

Next, it's choosing the right time for yourself and for the person in front of you, so that both of you are in a state of being able to give and receive on the other side. Taking ownership of the feedback is also important and in the preparation, it is fundamental, I am the one who gives the feedback. It's not someone else, it's my feedback. I appropriated it before giving it. Finally, I would say another practice so that all feedback is well received by people, it is in its regular practice. It's about balancing moments when I'm going to give something positive and then moments when I'm going to give development.

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‍How do you spread a feedback culture?

‍Disseminating a feedback culture remains a real challenge for organizations. There are not multiple ways to approach the subject. At Talentis, we have several types of programs that address this objective in management or leadership seminars, we will have sequences that will be dedicated to the practice of feedback where we will precisely give good practices, give a methodology for successful and constructive feedback.

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We can also organize shorter, punchy workshops where people put into practice, start giving each other feedback, where we are really experiential. These are things that we develop.

The reality behind all of this is that it has to live on a daily basis. For this practice to be disseminated, it must be practiced on a daily basis. This must be taken care of by managers. This must be taken in hand by the leaders, but it must be taken in hand by all employees. Because feedback is not just vertical, it's also horizontal. In other words, the power of feedback is also at the level of a project group: I am going to give feedback to my peer who is in the same management community as me. It is not just the boss to his collaborator, it is also the collaborator to his boss. To disseminate this, the best way we have identified is to work at the level of formed teams. And it means bringing into established teams, whether they are teams from elsewhere hierarchical or project teams, a practice of regular feedback. At the end of each meeting, we give each other feedback. We also give collective feedback on how we cooperated during this meeting, but it's about making this a regular occurrence.

So the real challenge and for this dissemination of the practice of feedback in the organization, is really to set it when you are a manager, when you are a leader as an objective and as a practice that I want to install within my team.

‍As Seneca said: “It is not because it is difficult that we do not dare, but it is because we do not dare that it is difficult.” I think that this sentence summarizes the subject of feedback quite well, since building a feedback culture requires above all to work on courage and trust. Because feedback is a great platform for trust between people and between teams.