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communicate and make sure your body language supports
3. Keep feedback impersonal. Feedback, particularly the neg- CHAPTER 7 • Managing Human Resources 247
ative kind, should be descriptive rather than judgmental or that message.
evaluative. No matter how upset you are, keep the feedback Based on A. Tugend, “You’ve Been Doing a Fantastic Job. Just One Thing . . .,” New
focused on job-related behaviors and never criticize some- York Times Online, April 5, 2013; C. R. Mill, “Feedback: The Art of Giving and Receiving
one personally because of an inappropriate action. Help,” in L. Porter and C. R. Mill (eds.), The Reading Book for Human Relations Training
(Bethel, ME: NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science, 1976), 18–19; and S. Bishop,
4. Keep feedback goal oriented. Feedback should not be giv- The Complete Feedback Skills Training Book (Aldershot, UK: Gower Publishing, 2000).
en primarily to “blow off steam” or “unload” on another
person. If you have to say something negative, make sure Practicing the Skill
it’s directed toward the recipient’s goals. Ask yourself Read through this scenario and follow the directions at the end
whom the feedback is supposed to help. If the answer is of it.
you, bite your tongue and hold the comment. Such feed-
back undermines your credibility and lessens the meaning Craig is an excellent employee whose expertise and produc-
and influence of future feedback. tivity have always met or exceeded your expectations. But
recently he’s been making work difficult for other members of
5. Know when to give feedback—make it well timed. Feed-
back is most meaningful to a recipient when there’s a very your advertising team. Like his coworkers, Craig researches
short interval between his or her behavior and the receipt and computes the costs of media coverage for your advertis-
of feedback about that behavior. Moreover, if you’re ing agency’s clients. The work requires laboriously leafing
particularly concerned with changing behavior, delays in through several large reference books to find the correct base
providing feedback on the undesirable actions lessen the price and add-on charges for each radio or television station
likelihood that the feedback will be effective in bringing and time slot, calculating each actual cost, and compiling the
about the desired change. Of course, making feedback results in a computerized spreadsheet. To make things more
prompt merely for the sake of promptness can backfire efficient and convenient, you’ve always allowed your team
if you have insufficient information, if you’re angry, or members to bring the reference books they’re using to their
if you’re otherwise emotionally upset. In such instances, desks while they’re using them. Lately, however, Craig has
“well timed” could mean “somewhat delayed.” been piling books around him for days and sometimes weeks
at a time. The books interfere with the flow of traffic past his
6. Ensure understanding. Make sure your feedback is con- desk and other people have to go out of their way to retrieve
cise and complete so that the recipient clearly and fully the books from Craig’s pile. It’s time for you to have a talk
understands the communication. It may help to have the with Craig.
recipient rephrase the content of your feedback to find out Prepare an outline of how you will address this issue with
whether it fully captured the meaning you intended. Craig. Using the suggestions in the Skill Basics, be as specific
7. Watch your body language, tone of voice, and facial as possible in terms of what you will say and how you will
expressions. Your body language and tone of voice can approach this. If your professor chooses, be prepared to do
speak louder than words. Think about what you want to some role-playing in class.

Western Montana Power & Light Experiential Exercise
To: Sandra Gillies, Director of Human Resources
From: William Mulroney, CEO
Re: Sexual Harassment

Sandra, I think we might have a problem. It appears that some I want this issue of sexual harassment to be the primary
of our employees aren’t clear about the practices and ac- topic at next month’s executive board meeting. To facilitate dis-
tions that do or do not constitute sexual harassment. We can’t cussion, please give me a bulleted list describing the content of
have any ambiguity or uncertainty about this, as you know. an initial two-hour employee workshop on sexual harassment.
We need to immediately develop a training program for all our This fictionalized company and message were created for educational
employees and develop a workable procedure to handle any purposes only, and not meant to reflect positively or negatively on management
complaints that might arise. practices by any company that may share this name.