Critical Feedback - How To Give The Boss Constructive Criticism
Giving critical feedback about your boss can be a difficult task. Recently, one of our clients, who is a Vice President at an international accounting firm requested some guidance on how to accomplish this difficult task.
Background: Our client is a Vice President at an international accounting firm. He is very capable and consequently well thought of by executive management. About a year ago, a new manager was appointed to his work group. From our client’s description, his manager is tyrant and a bad boss. Consequently, since this appointment the group has experienced low moral and significant turnover. Due to our client’s positive reputation he was asked by the executives to provide critical feedback about his new boss.
We recognize the difficult situation our client was in, he wanted to provide honest feedback to upper management but he also wanted avoid creating a negative relationship with his immediate manger. After listening to our client’s situation and gathering more information, here were some of points we provided him:
- Balance this negative conversation with some positives. This conversation has a negative tone and it is important to balance this with some positives. You need to identify his strengths, if he has none, identify his potential. Look for his positive behaviors, if he always displays poor behaviors identify positive intent. And the key to providing any meaningful feedback is be prepared to back up your statements with examples. By doing this, you will reinforce that you are a fair and balanced in the way you deal with people – all traits of a good leader candidate. Also inevitably your boss’s superiors will have a conversation with him and they will need some positives to refer to. When the positives comes up he will know that you were his ally.
- Focus on the future and maintain a supportive conversation. Even though your boss is a tyrant, let’s not dwell on his past mistakes. Rather focus on how you can make this work better for everyone in our team going forward. At the Vice Present level, it would be fair to assume that you will be expected to offer suggestions. Show you have given this thought and are willing SHARE your suggestions and ideas. Possible supportive suggestions are:
- Mentor with respected leader in the company at his same level or higher. help him adjust to the unique work culture there. sounding board on people issues. source of guidance.
- Provide additional training and education. Suggest workshops, courses, books, on leadership. Perhaps you can attend as a team so as not to isolate him. This is a good opportunity to cite a noteworthy book
or course you have recently taken on leadership. e.g. tom peters leadership book, ken blanchard servant leader concept, one minute manager, situational teams.
- Engage hr look for support, expertise, explore internally offered resources. Maybe he is not aware of his opportunities for improvement and impact. Consult HR for current processes to identify and address these issues. In this case, possible tools and sources of information would be an anonymous 360 evaluation, employee moral surveys, and performance reviews. For instance, by looking at this data, and investigating we could find that it’s a generational management issue. In such case, the appropriate information and training could be provied such as “Understanding and Managing the Generational Divide” by n Gen People Performance.
By offering supportive suggestions will reinforce you are open, honest, and a team player.
If this becomes specific and more like an investigative interview whose purpose is discpline or termination. Then the basics of coaching feedback apply.
- Separate the person from the behavior. Focus on behavior and be prepared to back up with examples. Always better to say I don’t like your behavior vs I don’t like you. For example, I dealt with complaint about male employer staring at the chests of his female co-workers. In this case, I did not start this conversation by saying that “you are a pervert” which labels and creates a point of debate that is not constructive. Rather, I described this behavior as “staring inappropriately at coworkers” and “a lack direct eye-contact”, I think you get the picture.
- Frame your manager’s opportunity for improvements by identifying the impact or result to you, the team, the company. This way, it’s not personal. You will appear more fair and impartial. Follow up with supportive suggestions to reinforce your image as a team player.
- Use the sandwich approach. End the meeting on a positive tone, recap his strengths and his potential, etc. You may even ask for feedback on your feedback. At the end of the day it is positive that they respect you enough to ask for your opinion so acknowledge this. Make sure you end on a positive note.
- Lastly, all of this advice depends on how long he expects to be there.
Information provided by, http://www.HRinmotion.com
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Tags: boss, Construct, Constructive, Criticism
