We recently had a great conversation with an I/O Psychologist and Thought Leader that said something that stuck with me. Paraphrasing, he said…wow, at qChange you’re focused on improving meetings and improving feedback, probably the two most disliked parts of work. Good luck with that! We all laughed about that, but I thought to myself two things.
One, yes we are, and we’re also trying to do this by launching a company in a pandemic!
Two, we’re really on to something here!
Recently, I’ve been researching and writing about meetings (Disliked Topic #1). Quick summary…there’s a zillion of them, they are often dreaded, and they provide such a critical opportunity for leaders to show up better and improve Employee Experience.
Today I’ll focus on Disliked Topic # Two: Feedback! I’m not naming names or organizations, but I’ve been a part of cultures and have consulted to organizations that have strong feedback cultures, and others that have had the exact opposite. A critical driver of engagement and financial performance. I recently read the book Feedback (and Other Dirty Words) by M. Tamra Chandler and Laura Grealish. They found 62% of employees wanted more feedback than they were receiving, and, when done right, 83% appreciated it when they received it (even if it was negative). Organizationally, they found that financial performance was two times better in positive feedback culture companies as it was in negative.
So, how to Build a Better Feedback Culture: Consistently, throughout my experience, research, and reading I’ve done on the topic, here are few keys to creating a positive feedback culture. 1. Growth mindset individuals – the more open to growing the better. 2. Trust – providing easy and safe ways to give and receive feedback is important to building trust. 3. Noticing – spending time observing without judgement. 4. Practice – giving specific and clear feedback, making it bite sized, and more positive than negative (at least 5 to 1 ratio). 5. Asking for it – creating safe and easy ways for people to seek feedback. 6. Diversity & Inclusion – finding multiple diverse sources of individuals to receive feedback from (not just the boss). Peers are critical and extremely beneficial.
All of these are critical design features that we focus on with our Leadership Experience solution. and help us create a more connected environment, and a more feedback rich culture. At qChange our focus is on guiding and growing leadership, in the flow of work, so leaders, teams and organizational cultures improve. We do this by focusing in and around leadership in meetings (Disliked Topic #1), and by providing a safe and frictionless process to give and receive feedback (Disliked Topic #2).
qChange – Tackling the Most Disliked Topics…an interesting tagline.
John Howes, Ph.D.
jhowes@qchange.com
Recent blog on meetings: https://www.qchange.com/post/making-meetings-suck-less-it-s-a-dream
