No Feedback this year, thank you!

The end of the year is looming and it is time for the dreaded annual feedback sessions which most managers and employees dread and feel as if this is the judgement day: "This you did well and here you didn't, here's what is wrong. etc." Managers spend time writing them (as they are required to by the company) and the next day, everybody moves on, happy they got this out of the way can forget about it till next year. Perhaps deciding that it is time to move to a place the appreciates them.

So what is wrong with feedback? Well, nothing if it is done right, but when it is done wrong (which is most of the time), it creates more harm than good. It is usually done too late, not relevant and all the negativity turns it into a painful process.

To be able to provide effective feedback there needs to be a high level of trust between the manager and employee, so that they would be really willing to listen and a it should be directed to the employees vision, to help them grow and achieve it. I will elaborate on this in another time. 

So what is "FeedForward"? This is a tool to be used on a regular basis, when things didn't necessarily go the right way or could be done better. This can be done in a quick discussion to see what should be done in a similar situation in the future. 

For Example: an employee didn't reach his kpi's this week. So the question could be: "So what do you need to do next week to meet those kpi's?, or "How will you achieve those KPi's next week?" Then we can coach and guide the employee looking forward to the future which we can impact, versus the past which we can't and dwelling on it, will just set us back.

So FeedForward on a regular basis, so the context is still fresh and it is relevant. The change in action or behavior can lead to quick results.

Keep it simple and let the employee leave with specific steps they came up with that they can take to reach their goals.