W EEKLY EDITION MAY 22, 2019
Feedback: Friend or Foe?
By Karleen Kos, PSAI Executive Director
Harvard Business Review (HBR) published an article called The Feedback Fallacy in its March/April 2019
issue. The article cited research which shows that:
• When people hear feedback, it often is perceived as criticism.
• Criticism causes the brain to shut down its ability to learn.
• Excellence is not the opposite of failure.
• Because of individual differences, managers cannot "c orrect" a person's way to excellence.
The truth is that we spend a lot of time in our lives trying to be really good at whatever we value – from
parenting, to how we run a business, to how we pitch softball. What each person values is subjective and
uniqu e. We can only hope that our employees value their jobs highly enough that they actively engage in
trying to be good at them. If our team members do care about succeeding at work, it is relatively easy for
them to attain excellence — if supervisors underst and that the road is not going to be the same for
everyone.
Helping Employees Excel
Nobody likes to be criticized; that's a given. As part of our biological programming for responding to
perceived threats, most people are very cognizant of whether they are being criticized when someone is
providing "feedback." Because of how the brain responds, employees have a hard time learning when they
perceive this disapproval. You can call them "snowflakes" or roll your eyes at how the next generation is
going to r uin the world, but it won't change reality. Only knowing how to give information to employees in
a manner that drives positive behavior changes will actually help your business.
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