Providing feedback has long been considered to be an essential skill for leaders. As they strive to achieve the goals of the organization, employees need to know how they are doing. They need to know if their performance is in line with what their leaders expect. They need to learn what they have done well and what they need to change.
Traditionally, this information has been communicated in the form of “downward feedback” from leaders to their employees. Just as employees need feedback from leaders, leaders can benefit from feedback from their employees. Employees can provide useful input on the effectiveness of procedures and processes and as well as input to managers on their leadership effectiveness. This “upward feedback” has become increasingly common with the advent of 360-degree multi-rater assessments.
But there is a fundamental problem with all types of feedback: it focuses on the past, on what has already occurred—not on the infinite variety of opportunities that can happen in the future. As such, feedback can be limited and static, as opposed to expansive and dynamic.
What I learnt from the Marshall Goldsmith Academy when I graduated from it in 2020 is an effective exercise: participants are each asked to play two roles. In one role, they are asked provide feedforward —that is, to give someone else suggestions for the future and help as much as they can. In the second role, they are asked to accept feedforward—that is, to listen to the suggestions for the future and learn as much as they can. The exercise typically lasts for 10-15 minutes, and the average participant has 6-7 dialogue sessions. In the exercise participants are asked to:
• Pick one behavior that they would like to change. Change in this behavior should make a significant, positive difference in their lives.
• Describe this behavior to randomly selected fellow participants. This is done in one-on-one dialogues. It can be done quite simply, such as, “I want to be a better listener.”
• Ask for feedforward—for two suggestions for the future that might help them achieve a positive change in their selected behavior. If participants have worked together in the past, they are not allowed to give ANY feedback about the past. They are only allowed to give ideas for the future.
• Listen attentively to the suggestions and take notes. Participants are not allowed to comment on the suggestions in any way. They are not allowed to critique the suggestions or even to make positive judgmental statements, such as, “That’s a good idea.”
• Thank the other participants for their suggestions.
• Ask the other persons what they would like to change.
• Provide feedforward – two suggestions aimed at helping the other person change.
• Say, “You are welcome.” when thanked for the suggestions. The entire process of both giving and receiving feedforward usually takes about two minutes.
Feedforward can often be more useful than feedback as a developmental tool, for several reasons:
1. We can change the future. We can’t change the past.
2. It can be more productive to help people learn to be “right,” than prove they were “wrong.” Because negative feedback often becomes an exercise in “let me prove you were wrong.”
3. Feedforward can come from anyone who knows about the task.
4. People do not take feedforward as personally as feedback. In theory, constructive feedback is supposed to “focus on the performance, not the person”. In practice, almost all feedback is taken personally (no matter how it is delivered).
5. Feedforward can cover almost all of the same “material” as feedback.
6. Feedforward tends to be much faster and more efficient than feedback. An excellent technique for giving ideas to successful people is to say, “Here are four ideas for the future. Please accept these in the positive spirit that they are given. If you can only use two of the ideas, you are still two ahead.
7. Feedforward can be a useful tool to apply with managers, peers, and team members.
8. People tend to listen more attentively to feedforward than feedback.
In summary, the intent of this article is not to imply that leaders should never give feedback or that performance appraisals should be abandoned. The intent is to show how feedforward can often be preferable to feedback in day-to-day interactions. Aside from its effectiveness and efficiency, feedforward can make life a lot more enjoyable.
Oftentimes, coaches have the misconception of having to be smarter, more superior, and understand their clients deeply in order to help them — which is untrue. Most of the time we learn so much more from people we don’t actually know because they don’t have any kind of stereotype, history, or baggage related to us that can skew their opinions.
We don’t have to be better than others to help.
What’s great about feedforward is that the whole focus is on helping each other. It’s a very simple and non-judgmental process. With this exercise, you’ll learn how to ask for input, and to listen in a non-defensive manner.
You will learn how to say thank you and give recognition for other people’s ideas as you treat them like a gift. You don’t have to use the gift; you just need to listen to it.
