Page 101 - HBR Leader's Handbook: Make an Impact, Inspire Your Organization, and Get to the Next Level

Getting Great People on Board 91

ing staff as the organization’s strategy evolved. Without feedback, individ-
uals and teams won’t get signals that tell them whether their day-to-day
efforts are working or not, or how to change. This is a key way of fulfilling
the social contract by ensuring that people understand what it takes to
succeed or whether another organization might be a better fit.
Giving constructive, candid, and timely feedback to subordinates is
taught in just about every management curriculum. But even experienced
leaders struggle with it, particularly because of the anxiety that it triggers.
Looking another person in the eye and telling them how they are doing
(whether good or bad) is difficult, and even more so when it might affect
the person’s livelihood or career. So we tend to avoid doing it, do it awk-
wardly, or slough it off to human resources. However, giving feedback is
an even more critical skill for leaders than managers, because leaders are
not only responsible for providing feedback to their own direct reports, but
also for setting the tone for feedback and learning for the organization. It’s
a key part of having broader impact; as Mark Benjamin, when he was pres-
ident of NCR Corporation, told us: “If I don’t set the tone properly about
giving candid feedback, the problem multiplies itself exponentially. There
are 33,000 people at seven levels below me, and if I don’t do it well, it could
mean that there is someone on my team, who might have 4,000 people
reporting to him, that doesn’t do it well. So then the bar is lowered for all
of those people.”
Of course, you might not have thousands of people in your organiza-
tion. But even if you and your direct reports are responsible for only a few
dozen, each one needs to knows how they are doing. Just as the vision and
strategy you set cascade down through your direct reports to others in your
area, the way you give performance feedback also creates patterns beyond
your immediate team. So not only must you give feedback to your direct
reports effectively, but they must also do the same with their people.

Get through with tough feedback
For feedback to be effective, you need to think through the process and
message beforehand and prepare yourself psychologically. Feedback can’t
be done well on the fly or in a hurried and frenzied conversation, no matter