Tag Archive for: qualities of effective leadership

feedback

Managing Employee Performance – Assessing Performance Part 3

feedback

This blog is part of a series of blogs focusing on the topic of “Managing Employee Performance”. Managing employee performance in the workplace is comprised of all of the interactions and activities that take place between an employer and an employee. These interactions and activities result in the achievement of goals and expectations. More importantly, they result in employee success and organizational success. The previous two blogs emphasized the importance of ongoing conversations and choosing an approach focused on “landing” the message vs. just sending the message. Managers of employee performance need to commit to providing meaningful and helpful feedback on a regular basis. This feedback must be authentic and clear. This blog will continue the topic of how to assesses performance through ongoing conversations with a focus on how to structure the actual feedback conversation so that it “lands”.

Four Step Framework

I have developed a four-step framework for providing feedback in an effective manner. As a way to remember each step of the process, the four steps are based on the word FEED. Connecting the concept to a story can be a great way to remember the concept, so let’s do that for our feedback framework.

In our story, a young woman with great potential joins an organization and is matched with an experienced executive who is entering the twilight of her career and has been asked to mentor the new employee. When they sit down at their first meeting, the experienced executive asks the young woman “what would you like from me – how can I help?” The young woman remarks that she prefers an environment where people are engaged, care about their work, relationships matter and employee success matters. She continues with an observation that all too often there is an environment where people are indifferent, relationships don’t seem to matter, and management appears to only care about how the company is doing. She then asks, “how do I build an atmosphere where relationships matter, and people feel supported?”

The wise executive answers “Relationships are a like a living being. They are alive and need sustenance. Like any living entity, the one you feed thrives. If the sustenance you deliver provides clarity, builds engagement and supports employee success, that is what will thrive.  Take a few days to think about that, and let’s meet again to talk about what I’ve said and what it means to you.”  With that, the meeting ends.

Feedback Process – FEED

The key concept from the story is “whatever you feed will thrive”. A framework for having great conversations with people is all about your ability to FEED. FEED stands for:

Step 1 – Facts, Focus and Framing

  • Facts – Describe the situation – the specific behaviours and outcomes.
  • Focus – What will be the focus of the conversation? Identify the message that you want to “land”.
  • Frame – How will you frame the conversation at the beginning – what context will be helpful for the message to “land” better?

Step 2 – Expectations

  • Revisit the expectations. Confirm the “target” expectations that have been communicated and discussed in the past.

Step 3 – Effect

  • Discuss the effect of the actions taken. Review the impact of the actions/outcomes. What difference does it make to the recipient of the feedback, to co-workers, to the customer, or to the organization? Connect the impact to outcomes that are important to the recipient (explain an example).

Step 4 – Dialogue

  • Invite the other person to share their perspective. Engage in dialogue – an exchange of thoughts.

If you do a good job FEEDing an employee when assessing their performance, success will grow. In the next blog, we will summarize the key elements of assessing performance.

As always, I welcome your comments and feedback. You can connect with me via email or telephone or leave a comment right here on the site.

Until next time,

Dave

David Town, CHRL, ACC is a facilitator and coach of leadership and management principles that enable individuals and organizations to build greater leadership competency, resulting in higher performance and higher employee engagement. David has a particular focus on effectively managing conversations involving confrontation or conflict. As well, he provides insights and assessment strategies for integrating character competencies into leadership skills resulting in increased trust and reduced risk for leaders. David is a member of the International Coaching Federation and is President of Your Leadership Matters Inc.

Leadership & Character – Courage

Courage sign with road background

This blog is part of a series focusing on the attributes that lead to a positive assessment of a leader’s character.  Each of the positive character attributes contribute in their own way to the ability of the leader to make good, character-based decisions with respect to the actions they take as a leader.  The focus for this blog is on courage. Read more

Leadership & Character – Self-Control

Control your emotions text concept

Over the past few months, I have offered insights into the various attributes possessed by leaders who act with character.  Each of these character attributes contributes to the leader’s ability to make positive, character-based decisions.  One attribute I have not yet explored is self-control.  After reviewing various dictionary definitions I’ve landed on the following themes that express the meaning of self-control:  the ability to resist or delay an impulse; the ability to control oneself – particularly emotions and desires; and the ability to stop yourself from doing something you want to do, but may not be in your best interests. Read more

Leadership & Character – Vision & Meaning

Vision concept with hand pressing a button

The ability to make good decisions is an important skill for leaders. In order to be able to make good decisions, leaders must have a clear focus. This focus can come from the vision that the leader is trying to achieve and the underlying purpose or meaning that is served by the vision. So, let’s take a look at the importance of vision and meaning in character-based leadership. Read more

Leadership & Character – Compassion

compassion word in wood type

The past three blogs have focused on character in leadership based on an assessment of the presence of four universally-accepted moral principles: integrity, responsibility, forgiveness and compassion.  These principles are the foundation of the methodology for assessing character that Fred Kiel introduced in his book entitled “Return on Character”.   This blog will focus on the importance of compassion as it relates to character-based leadership.

In order to understand the role of compassion in a character-based leader, we can turn to Fred Kiel’s book “Return on Character” where he outlines three common behaviors or attributes that constitute compassion in a leader: empathy, attachment and affection.

Let’s start with empathy. Empathy is broadly defined as the ability to understand the feelings of others. It is an important attribute for leaders to have for many reasons. First of all, a person who demonstrates strong empathy skills focuses on the feelings of others and not just their own feelings. Stephen Covey, author of “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” put “Seek first to understand then to be understood” as habit number five.  I think that Covey believed that to honour this habit a person must be able to demonstrate empathy and strong listening skills. Once they establish a deeper understanding of the other person’s point of view, they will be in a much better position to articulate their own thoughts and feelings.  When a person senses that you understand what they are feeling, the relationship strengthens. Read more

Leadership & Character – The Importance of Caring

leadership training expertThe focus of today’s blog is the importance of caring to character-based leadership. There is an old quote by Theodore Roosevelt “Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.” It is widely accepted that business knowledge is a very important attribute of successful leaders. However, a leader’s business knowledge is only valuable if the leader is able to effectively communicate it so that it will influence the actions of others.

To shine a light on the impact that a caring approach can have on the power of a leader, I’d like to share the story of the leadership and ownership struggles at Market Basket, a grocery retail chain with more than 70 stores located in the eastern United States. As CEO of Market Basket, Arthur T. Demoulas had developed a strong reputation for caring; earned by always making time for employees. Read more