Managing Feedback

Everyday we may have to deal with more feedback of opinions than we consciously expect or are prepared to do so. Strictly speaking, every dialogue between two persons must contain some elements of feedback to each other. In a corporate environment, dealing with feedback - as in the formal process of performance appraisal - can be particularly challenging, in either giving it or receiving it.

Whenever opinions are exchanged, no doubt personal judgment is concerned, which, more often than not, involves bias and preference. Even facts have to be based upon, they can be selectively used. By nature, people are different and bound to hold different opinions which may be contentious to each other, even about the same thing.

But the challenge about dealing with feedback is often not so much about the judgment concerned as the delivery process itself. Speaking up one's mind without reserve and taking criticism with an open mind are not often easy to do in many circumstances. But if the goal for continuous improvement is to be taken at heart, those are exactly the challenges people may have to take, not just during performance review, but in all dialogues - particularly in the corporate environment.

Over the years, I have had the testing experiences of dealing with staffs of poor performance (in my opinion) on numerous occasions. After all nice gestures and diplomacy were exhausted, it was rather obvious to me that the only way forward was to make crystal clear my expectation for the kinds of changes that were required. In other words, alignment in views had to be forced upon the incumbents or there would be no chance of any changes in behaviour to my possible satisfaction.

On the other hand, I also have had the (rare) but shocking surprises of realizing some negative perception on what I did, being told directly of the judgment completely on contrary to that I held. But in hindsight, I am always grateful to those frank advices. For right or wrong, if not for the frankness of those persons who bothered to make an effort to be frank with me, I would never have known it and might face more dire consequences as a result. In fact, with my own experience on the appraiser's side, I only offered my advices always with the hope for positive changes kept alive. Otherwise, I kept my opinions to myself and let the disciplinary procedure take its full course of consequence - whatever it could mean and wherever it might take.

In any case, coming back to the point of judgment, it is in fact arbitrary and based upon a person's background of ideologies, beliefs and values. When views are not aligned, therefore, the bottom line must rest on the guiding principles concerned, which are where discussion has the final chance of getting constructive and, after all, a common ground needs to be struck.

However, the most difficult kind of feedback to give is probably in the upward direction. Telling your boss that you know better, particularly with an unsolicited opinion, is not a very promising - perhaps even career limiting - move to make. After all, you may not really know as much as you thought you did. In any case, this particular challenge reminded me of a statement of forgotten source (and may not be exactly in these words) : what define a company are the dialogues from within.