Connected Feedback
How can we provide our staff and teams with feedback when and how it is most useful?
There are few skills as important or challenging for a leader than giving feedback. Feedback helps our employees and our organizations succeed by steering us toward our goals and supporting growth. But providing useful feedback is often neglected, with kudos and positive feedback falling to the bottom of the to-do list or tacked on with little enthusiasm at the end of a phase or project, and negative feedback avoided until we can no longer escape action or are long past being able to accurately or effectively learn from an incident.
How can we provide our staff and teams with feedback when and how it is most useful?
Approach feedback as an opportunity for collaboration and connection, and not as a lecture. This approach is exemplified in Dare to Lead (You Can Leadership's first Amplify Bookshelf read) when Dr. Brené Brown writes:
"I know I’m ready to give feedback when I’m ready to sit next to you rather than across from you.”
Aim to listen more than you speak. Approach feedback as a conversation with a goal of understanding (not just action). So ask questions to ensure that you have a complete understanding of the situation and then listen carefully before responding. Even with positive feedback, we should allow time to hear what went well.
Balance timeliness with space. Feedback is rarely useful or effective if it isn't delivered as soon as possible, yet we also need to ensure a conducive environment. Is the physical space comfortable and appropriate? Who should be present? Is there sufficient time for discussion and reflection? Consider carefully the time and space for providing feedback.
Focus on future actions and growth. While we want to operate from a place of understanding, feedback should be future-focused and support growth. What can be learned from the situation and how can we improve in the future? What actions need to be taken to resolve a problem or to celebrate a success and build upon it?
Focus on accountability (theirs and yours). With positive feedback, acknowledge the broader impacts of a contribution. When giving negative feedback, avoid blame and shift the focus to shared accountability. While responsibility for an incident may fall on the shoulders of your employee, accountability for a resolution and next steps should be shared.
By making feedback a priority, shifting the focus to future actions, and approaching feedback as a collaborative learning opportunity, you can provide useful feedback that increases connections and lifts up your team.
Also published as a LinkedIn article.
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Broadening our Approach to Professional Goals
Broadening our approach to setting professional goals with our employees transforms job development into career development.
In several of the organizations where I have supervised employees, a common element of the performance evaluation process was developing goals for the next year. Employees were expected to work with their supervisor to establish a set of goals to guide their work and professional development, and to assess progress towards those goals the following year. Often these goals were aimed at new or change initiatives, like managing a special project or learning a new software program, or with the objective of improving performance, such as time management training or setting measures to focus attention on an area of weakness.
Given that such goal-setting occurred within the annual performance evaluation process, it is no surprise that most goals focused on the current job and needs of the department. But this approach often seemed short-sighted to me, as it was more about job development than career development. Improving job performance made sense for newer or struggling employees, but what about my excellent performers and raising stars? What should they be doing now to prepare them to advance beyond their current role and even the current department or organization?
Image Description: Series of white doors with one yellow door.
Recognizing this challenge, here are a few strategies I have used to broaden the scope of professional development goals for my employees:
Discuss long-term career goals, including encouraging an honest assessment of their potential and interest in growth within and outside of the organization and profession.
Encourage development of soft and transferable skills, such as project management or professional writing.
Support supervisory and leadership training, regardless of their current role.
Encourage participation in networking opportunities and mentoring outside of the department and organization.
Support a project or activity that benefits their personal development or allows them to stretch beyond their existing role.
As supervisors, broadening our approach to setting professional goals with our employees should allow us to better support not only our top performers, but all members of our staff. How do you use professional goals to support your employees?
Also published as a LinkedIn article.
Project Management as Facilitation
Project management is a form of facilitation and provides the scaffolding to support people in reaching a goal, allowing for consensus, collaboration and flexibility while keeping us focused on outcomes.
Across my career, I have regularly needed to manage projects. From technology implementations and resource development, to space and website redesigns and assessment programs, the oversight and management of a wide variety of projects was critical to the success of the units I led, the committees I served on and the organizations with which I volunteered. But juggling the day-to-day duties of my primary roles along with managing projects was often challenging - corralling disparate staff, stakeholders and vendors, budgeting resources, allocating tasks and maintaining tight timelines can be tough (to say nothing of the constant battle against scope creep!).
Image Description: Group working at a table with notepads, laptop and coffee.
Despite the challenges, managing projects has always been one of my favorite roles. For me, project management is a form of facilitation - managing projects is about connecting and supporting people and leveraging resources towards a common goal. The tools and techniques of project management simply make reaching a collective and complex goal easier. A project scope articulates a desired outcome and helps to target our efforts. Tasks, timelines and budgets keep a project moving, allowing us to plan, track and analyze our progress and pivot when needs change or challenges arise. Good project management provides the scaffolding to support people in reaching a goal, allowing for consensus, collaboration and flexibility while keeping us focused on outcomes.
To see an endeavor go from design to delivery is rewarding, even more so when the effort was truly collaborative. When I could bring together the ideas, skills and strengths of a group, and support them in moving a project forward, I felt like I was doing my best work and serving others. Even when we didn’t reach our desired outcomes (or our outcomes weren’t as desirable as we had imagined), I still found value in the collaborative effort and enjoyed the process.
What do you find rewarding or challenging about managing projects?
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The Benefits of Zero-based Budgeting
Zero-based budgeting provides a flexible, strategic approach to budget management.
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For many of my colleagues in higher education, budget season is in full swing. With academic and fiscal years coming to an end in a few weeks and months, they are winding down their budgets and preparing requests for next year. Many institutions have rolled out zero-based budgeting, which may feel like the newest fad designed to create even more angst for budget managers. While I understand that any budget discussion that begins with the number 0 can sound scary, I’m a huge fan of zero-based budgeting and have used it successfully to manage department and division budgets.
With zero-based budgeting, instead of developing your budget plan based on last year's funding or another set amount, you begin your budgeting by detailing your needs and priorities for the budget period and build your budget from there. While the name suggests a targeted focus on cost-savings, at its core, zero-based budgeting focuses on strategy and accountability. By beginning with your needs, rather than an expected funding amount, you are forced to reevaluate those needs each new budget period and to determine whether those needs are an accurate reflection of the priorities of your department, project, or larger organization.
I’ve found that beginning at zero and with my strategic priorities in mind has also allowed for unconstrained planning and enabled me to react quickly and effectively to funding opportunities and budget cuts. The zero-based budgeting process prompts me to develop a list of all needs, including upgrades, additional staff, and dream projects, and to tie those expenses to my strategic priorities. For new staff and initiatives, and for expenses that ended up not being funded during the budget period, I develop a short one-page proposal I can use if funding becomes available. I have been able to quickly turn these proposals into requests when leadership has announced a funding opportunity – I can be first in line when discretionary or year-end funding becomes available, and have a head start when preparing more formal proposals for funding. Similarly, when faced with mid-year budget cuts and when departments have been asked to give back a portion of their budget, I have been able to draw upon my list of needs and priorities to successfully advocate for reductions to the cuts affecting my department. When across-the-board cuts have been implemented, I have used my zero-based budget plan to prioritize expenses and make the best use of funds to lessen the impact on my department.
Instead of being constrained by anticipated funding, or by what had been funded in the past, I found that the zero-based budgeting process provided me with a flexible, strategic approach to budget management. What is your experience with zero-based budgeting?
Connected Networking
Approaching networking as an opportunity to thank someone or to learn more about them has made networking feel less forced and opened a door to genuine connections.
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I’ve always struggled with the networking aspects of attending conferences and other professional events. While I’m someone who loves to talk with new people, I have tended to only explore connections with those where the interaction felt really genuine or natural. If that instant connection wasn’t there, I told myself that it wasn’t worth reaching out after the event. But I recently realized that even when I felt that instant connection, I still wasn’t reaching out after meeting someone at an event. I didn’t want to “bother” the other person, particularly if there wasn’t some practical or immediate reason to follow-up with them. And I didn’t want to feel like I was pressuring them to further our connection or to pursue a business relationship. This approach left me with an untouched stack of other people’s business cards and a lot of missed opportunities.
Starting and promoting You Can Leadership has me out at a lot of professional events and I recently attended a conference we were sponsoring. So a few weeks ago I resolved to approach these events and networking differently. Instead of waiting for the clouds to part and the sun to shine upon some instant connection, I was going to take action by:
Reaching out with a quick email after exchanging business cards.
I’ve started sending short and quick emails to people I’ve met at professional events. Just a few lines in the days after the event to say that I enjoyed meeting them, or to wish them luck in an endeavor they mentioned, or share the full title of a book we discussed or I think they might enjoy. I may also add a line to my email suggesting getting together for coffee or finding a time to chat via phone. I was particularly inspired by a presentation Tracy Jenkins gave on Informational Interviewing, and have asked for a time to meet or talk so that I can learn more about their career path and current role or industry.
Sending thanks and kudos to presenters, event organizers and others who made a positive contribution or impression on me.
I’ve also started reaching out to presenters, event organizers or others who made an impression on me at an event. These are often people I didn’t have the opportunity to talk with or to introduce myself. I just send a quick email letting them know I enjoyed their talk, appreciated their work, or was impressed by something they did or said. I may also suggest getting together for coffee or finding time to talk via phone to get to learn more or get to know them. Who doesn’t enjoy getting positive feedback? I recently received such an email myself and it really brightened my week!
While some of these connections have (at least so far) ended with just an email exchange, some have resulted in meetings and conversations that have been really wonderful - I’ve learned a lot and gotten to know some really interesting people. Approaching networking as an opportunity for me to thank someone or to learn more about them has also made networking feel less forced for me - I’m simply opening a door to a possible connection. The worst that can happen is that they don’t respond. But the possibilities for developing a genuine connection are certainly worth the small effort.
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