CHAPTER 5 GETTING FEEDBACK - WE'VE ALL PROBABLY had this experience: we hand in a

WE'VE ALL PROBABLY had this experience: we hand in a

38 CHAPTER 5 GETTING FEEDBACK

Figure 5.1 A common way of getting feedback is from comments on written materials, which should explain clearly what needs to be changed.

praisals."

No doubt, you receive such appraisals from your manager or organization periodically, and at least annually, and they are often tied to your pay and promotion opportunities. These appraisals range from informal exercises to, more commonly, a multilayered series of ratings on your expected goals and performance. On the face of it, these appraisals should be excellent feedback, and, proba bly in some places in the universe, they are. Not in most places, however. A short anecdote may illustrate this; hopefully, it will not offend any Human Resources professionals reading this.

At a seminar I gave in Hartford with a score of mechanical en gineers, I asked for a show of hands by those who felt that their or ganization's performance appraisal system was helpful. I expected a few people to raise their hands and then share with everyone how this was being done. To my surprise, my question got the biggest laugh that I can ever recall at my seminars. One person thought it was so funny that he almost fell off his chair in hysterics, prompt ing further laughter by the group. So either my seminars aren't too funny (perhaps) or "helpful performance appraisals" is an oxy moron. (If you don't know what "oxymoron" means, take a mo-

GETTING FEEDBACK 39 ment to look it up-it will be a very useful addition to your vocab ulary!)

With that disquieting anecdote, how can you get the best feed back out of your organization's performance appraisals? After all, there's a lot of time and effort spent on these, and they are supposed to evaluate your performance against specific goals and accom plishments, as well as rate your strong points and areas needing de velopment-read "weak areas". The key in evaluating performance is to be able to articulate clear work goals and specific accomplish ments that are expected, and write them down. (By the way, this is always valuable for you to do to evaluate yourself, even if it's not part of an appraisal.) You need to "be on the same page" with your manager and any other important person you must report to, so min imize any fuzziness or vagueness on what's to be done by you and by when. You must to be able to describe

how

you will know that you' ve accomplished the goals you set.

Here is an example: One year, my manager and I agreed on my "performance plan" that I would complete a solicitation for propos als to introduce Internet kiosks at major airports, make the business deal, and then implement the kiosks, all by a certain date. This was a clear set of goals and, even though there were the inevitable delays, my manager was satisfied with my performance when it came time to do the appraisal. Anything less clear would present problems in deciding how I did.

At the same time, this manager and I were uncomfortable when it came to his rating my performance, and determining where I needed to develop my skills. This is, to be sure, a delicate and un comfortable exercise, especially when there is a performance prob lem. In my example, I took the initiative a bit and asked my manag er to identify the one thing he thought I needed to improve during the following year. He responded quickly that I needed to improve on how to negotiate a business deal and suggested I take a profes sional development course, which I did soon after. This approach was in the spirit of the old adage of "managing your boss," which has many useful applications!

What we don't know can hurt u: 0 it i important to reque t feedback from other. What we can't ee in our elve , they may be able to ee. Once revealed to u , we can do omething about it.

40 CHAPTER 5 GmlNG FEEDBACK

To be sure, this brief slice of "performance appraisals" cannot begin to cover the breadth of experiences you may have already faced, or will face, in your career. So let's move on to some other practical ways of answering the always-burning question: "How am I doing?"

TALKING TO PEOPLE

Talking to people

is a good approach to get feedback. You can learn a lot about how you're doing from certain people in your life, though not everyone. Let's start with coworkers or peers, who have the advantage of seeing you in your work situation and also know ing some of the people, places, and things that you're dealing with, which no amount of explanation can adequately describe to parents and friends. This is very difficult for well-meaning advice givers, since their experiences in life, however valuable, may just not be helpful or correct in your situation.

A good way to get feedback from coworkers, as well as your manager, is to ask questions like:

• "How do you think the project is going?" • "What would you do in this situation?

• "If you were me, what would you do differently?" • "What's going well?"

• "Where do you think I could improve?"

Getting usable feedback can be a low-key, nuanced skill. If you try to ask a more direct question like "Am I doing OK?" that practi cally begs a "Yes" answer, you probably won't get an honest or help ful answer. (When your server at a restaurant asks whether every thing was OK, how often do you

really

tell them what you think?) Understand that your coworkers may not be frank or honest with you, or don't want to say something unpleasant, and you may not agree with their opinions and get emotional or defensive. This is a tricky business, so be subtle and probe.

Feedback is motivating, but too infrequent.

TALKING TO PEOPLE 41 Another approach to getting feedback, especially useful after a presentation you've given, is to ask another attendee whom you trust to check around afterwards for reactions or "buzz." This may include soliciting specific comments from people to feed back to you ("How did you think Carl did?" "Was his presentation clear?"). I once moderated a teleconference at the University of Maryland, and my cousin, a student there, attended and sat in the studio audi ence. I asked her to listen for any reactions to my moderating so I could get some feedback and make improvements.

Although your parents, spouse, or friends would seem to be good sources of feedback, I believe that this is generally not the case. In fact, their views on your work situation are probably close to useless. Really. Of course, they may be very intelligent and well meaning. The reason they probably would not helpful in assessing your work situation is that they would tend to be biased to be overly supportive, which is fine for soothing your ego. You might feel even worse because you know that they will always be supportive, and so lose some credibility to help you in dealing with work situations. If they were critical, you might retort with "You don't understand." And you'd be right; they probably don't-and can't-understand the complexity and nuances of your work issues.

I a k for feedback but I often ca t it ofT a "He doe n't know anything" and then don't utilize it for my bettennent.

-Engineer at DMJM+Harri

Some other ways to get good feedback are ingrained in the normal flow of work. You always need to have your "radar" on for reassurances that things are going well and hints that something is amiss. Try not to be too paranoid with constructive criticism-it is normal to be criticized from time to time, such as with corrections on written work. Just ask for explanations if the comments are not clear. Keep your cool at all times. But remember that the days of a professor giving you marks on your term papers, designs, and exams are over-not that

those

comments were always helpful!

Now that you've gotten some specific feedback, what are you going to do about it? The ball is now in your court. Since someone is suggesting that you do something

differently

than you thought was correct,

you need to consider what the person has suggested.

42 CHAPTER 5 GETTING FEEDBACK

Figure 5.2 Try not to get stressed or defensive by comments on your work. Treat them like constructive criticism and consider each sugges tion.

ignore the suggestion, at your own risk, I believe that it is very im portant to get into a habit of seriously considering

all

feedback and committing yourself to routinely making some changes. For exam ple, I religiously review the evaluations from my seminars and col lege courses, think about each and every suggestion, and then con sciously decide to try at least a few during the next seminar/course.

Getting in tbe Real World

• You

will

never (or hardly

get objective

the real

SUGGESTED READING 43 So if we really want to know how we're doing, then we need to get feedback, consider all suggestions, and make some changes. And that is the bottom-line reason for exerting the extra effort that is often required to get good, objective feedback in our complex real world-the need to take positive, constructive actions to address our specific weaknesses or deficiencies. Although it's a lot easier for us to work on things we're already good at-in fact we

enjoy

doing those things-it is much harder to discipline ourselves to signifi cantly improve our weaker areas. But the rewards of doing that rou tinely can enhance your effectiveness and happiness in your work and personal lives.

So, increase your "GPA"-your "Greater Personal Aware ness"!

6 SETTING

Wish I learned this when I was a student! When I was a young professional I struggled with the differences between urgent and important, and responsibility and accountability.

-Engineering manager at AIChE seminar

In document Stuff You Don't Learn in Engineering Scholl - Carl Selinger (Page 45-51)