Why feedback is meaningless without the context

Since this is the time where one delivers or receives yearly employee evaluations, I thought I will write a short post about it. This is larger than a regular post, but shorter than something I normally write on the newsletter. So my initial thought was I will save an email to the readers, and write it as a post, but unfortunately the post seems to be longer for a regular post per linked-in, so here goes. ??

As you know feedback is a wonderful thing, as it helps one understand or evaluate among other things..

1) Behavioral blindspots: These may be behaviors that are not immediately visible to them and hence its a mirror to you

2) The extent of a behavioral issue: these may be things you are aware of, but dont know the extent of how its perceived outside you

3) Priorities of stakeholders: These may be business or personal priorities that may be determining how much support you may receive from the person. Critical in a large context

The context of the feedback

The context of the feedback is as important or even more important than the feedback itself. This is why an anonymous list of feedback will not be beneficial to you, as it often misses the context of who it comes from. Unfortunately, the feedback you get as part of reviews are mostly anonymized to protect the person from a potential backlash, especially if you are in a leadership role.

Now please don’t get me wrong, all feedback is good feedback, however without knowing the context of the feedback, you may be trying to solve a problem that does not exist or a wrong problem altogether, which is counter productive. Why so? Please consider the following scenarios.

1) A person in your team is keen to add value and aspires to bring more strategic value to the organization. Now you may be invested in growing them and are creating environments for them to grow specifically in this regard. However it may not be directly visible to them, and they may give a 360 feedback that says, you need to be reviewing their work more closely and giving them guidance on strategy. This is a very short sighted approach, and will do more harm if the objective is for the report to grow in this regard. However this is what you are likely going to get in the feedback form response.

2) Imagine you work with many business stakeholders in the org. A stakeholder believes that their part of the business is more critical. However they believe you are not treating it with as much importance as you should and you are working more closely with say another business COE more. An example feedback you may get here may look like this. XYZ is knowledgeable in what he/she does. However they are not aligned with the business priorities of the organization. Note: this is actionable feedback and can be valuable to XYZ, however the person needs to know the context of where the feedback is coming from to properly internalize it and come up with a strategy to ensure the partners’ business needs are being taken care of.

I could go on with more scenarios, but I think you get the point.

Why is context important?

This is a critical nuance, as some negative (and positive) feedback come with a context that may not only be related to you, it may have something to do with the other person’s or business context as well. These are the types of feedback that you need to be careful you understand from all angles, before you make a decision to change your behavior.

If you are keen on moving up the value chain, or even genuinely want to improve, its imperative that you pay attention to all these types of feedback. However the point is you understand the context of the feedback, more than even the feedback itself before deciding to act, as often times, the feedback is just the tip of the iceberg, and diving deeper, you will find the real actionable feedback.

Now, I would also like to mention which feedback to focus on for growth. Some feedback, however tempting it may be to make a change based on them, may be counter productive IMHO. This is unromatic and may burst some bubbles, but know that not everyone has your interest, period. This is critical. One rule I follow to put this in perspective, is to try to put the feedback in the context of the person’s past actions towards you and what place it has come from. Has it come from a good place where they genuinely want you to excel and or grow positively. Then, by all means, take it, however negative it is, and think critically.

Also the best thing to do is to be open to learn continuously. This may require a behavioral tweak that increases the perception among your stakeholders (at all levels) that you are approachable and a safe person to be truthful to - however negative the information is.

Hope this is helpful. What you you think are important when receiving and giving feedback? Please comment.

Happy hump day!