Saying it like it is!

I have met a number of managers in my career who pride themselves in being direct with their staff. ‘If someone does something wrong, I will tell them’ or ‘I tell it like it is’, are two examples of the types of phrases I have heard. I may have paraphrased their comments slightly but the sentiment is the same. While openness and honesty is laudable, in my experience there is a big difference between ‘telling it like it is’ and speaking to someone without offending them. By this I don’t mean that we should talk around a subject for fear of offending. What I mean is, feedback must be delivered in a clear and constructive manner. Having given feedback to many people over the years (and I admit sometimes I wasn’t as professional or as constructive as I should have been!) I try to follow the following guidelines: 1. Prepare! The army have a phrase ‘The 4 P’s’, preparation and planning prevents poor performance and this is very true with feedback. Think through what you want to say and why you want to say it. Feedback should benefit the receiver and not be a release for you! 2. Give feedback when it is fresh in your mind and the other persons too. 3. Get the views of the other person first by asking open questions, e.g. there’s no point discussing something that happened months ago, ‘tell me about how you think the customer meeting went?’ 4. Use a framework to give feedback such as SCAR: a. Specifics – what were the facts/details, When, where, how? b. Consequences – what are the consequences of their actions? c. Actions – what actions are needed? d. Results – what will the outcomes be? 5. Own the feedback you give, use language such as ‘I saw, I heard, I observed…’ and stick to the facts. 6. Don’t be judgemental – avoid words and phrases like, ‘you are too slow, careless, short, tall etc.!’ 7. Don’t be vague – for example, ‘that report was great’. The receiver cannot do anything with vague feedback. 8. Don’t discuss personality, attitude, values or comparisons to others 9. Give feedback privately and not in front of others or in a public space. 10. Follow up – always agree the actions that are required as a result of the meeting and when you will follow them up. As I mentioned earlier there is a big difference between ‘telling it like it is’ and giving constructive feedback that the person can take on board and use to improve their performance and effectiveness and I hope you find the tips above useful.