COACHIN G PA SSION S
in the prevailing organisational culture and hierarchy, or wider societal norms concerning speaking plainly and directly. In some cultures, colleagues can speak freely and give their managers developmental feedback without apprehension; in others, this could be seen as disrespectful.
2. EXPLORE COSTS AND BENEFITS If your coachee acknowledges that giving and receiving feedback is a skill they wish to develop, exploring the costs and benefits of giving or receiving feedback to colleagues (and of not doing so) will help them recognise where they can make a positive change and what actions they should prioritise going forward.
3. ELICIT EXAMPLES OF FEEDBACK GIVEN WELL - AND BADLY Drawing on coachees’ own experiences of giving and receiving feedback can lead to useful compare-and-contrast analyses. From the insights gained in such a discussion, key characteristics of best practice can be identified in the coachee’s own terms, which will make it easier for them to implement feedback themselves.
4. MODEL GIVING FEEDBACK Model the evaluation process by giving feedback to your coachee based on what you have noticed and observed during the coaching. You may comment on their progress since the previous session, or perhaps how they responded to a particular moment in the current session.
7. BE A SOUNDING BOARD As coaches, we can act as an invaluable sounding board for managers to practise giving feedback to their colleagues. Simply getting the words out of someone’s head and spoken aloud builds managers’ confidence in giving feedback and helps them refine how they will deliver it in future. I’ve found that some managers are more concerned about being perceived as overly complimentary for giving positive feedback than they are about providing corrective feedback on performance that needs to improve. Practice with a coach provides vital preparation for managers, allowing them to experiment and give praise in ways that are authentic for them. If there is a specific situation where clients anticipate challenges ahead, you can role-play the conversation to help them prepare.
8. MODEL RECEIVING FEEDBACK Ask your coaching clients for feedback at the end of each session; this way, your coachee gets to practise and you get the gift of feedback yourself. It really helps to clarify at the start of the session what specifically you would value feedback about; for example, you could ask them to focus on how you helped them reflect on a recent event, or perhaps how you showed you were actively listening. Coaches with experience of co-coaching will know how well this practice works both for the recipients and those providing the feedback, simultaneously raising selfawareness and honing observational skills.
5. IDENTIFY ‘SITUATIONS WHEN…’ Work with coachees to identify everyday situations where they can give positive feedback to their colleagues – as well as seek it for themselves. Encourage weighting the balance of feedback in favour of positive reinforcement rather than corrective criticism. It can be illuminating for people to focus on the instances when a team member does something well; with human nature being what it is, many of us are more inclined to spot flaws and faults than improvements and proficiency.
6. DON’T SERVE SANDWICHES Personally, I’m not a fan of the ‘feedback sandwich,’ whereby the recipient is first given positive feedback or praise (the bread), followed by corrective feedback or criticism (the filling), and finally some further praise (more bread). This method sends mixed messages to recipients, who can easily pay more attention to either the praise or the criticism depending on what it is and how they perceive the situation. The result is confusion on both sides. What’s more, the ‘feedback sandwich’ devalues any praise that may be given, as recipients brace themselves for the bad news that inevitably follows.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dawn Sillett is a management skills coach, group facilitator author and is currently the managing director of Zoomly. After working in the marketing communications industry in the UK and overseas for fifteen years, she retrained and now works with enterprises big and small to improve individual, team and business performance. She holds a Psychology degree and is a Chartered Member of the CIPD, and is also the author of How to be Zoomly at Work and The Feedback Book. www.zoomly.co.uk
1. ‘Goodbye Annual Performance Appraisals.’ Accenture 2015 https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/goodbye-annual-performanceappraisals.htm 2. ‘Senior business leaders unequipped to manage and develop people’ HR Outlook Survey, 2017. CIPD / Workday https://www.cipd.co.uk/about/media/press/230117-hr-outlook-survey-2017
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