Holding up the mirror

Yesterday I found an old article on receiving feedback that was originally published in Fortune magazine in 1994. Two things in particular struck me as I read it:

Firstly, there’s an overriding message that feedback, and particularly 360 degree feedback, is here to stay. Given that this was written 15 years ago, a prediction that was clearly right on the button.

Secondly, I really liked the anecdotal evidence of its impact from some pretty powerful and experienced business people. From presidents of multi-billion dollar corporations to AT&T team managers, they all became more aware of their own performance, or discovered their colleagues had noticed the competency areas they weren’t working on. “Most people are surprised by what they hear. Only a fraction of managers have a good grasp of their own abilities.” These surprise revelations ranged through temper outbursts, standing too close to people, body language, poor writing skills (when the recipient actually prided himself on excelling in this area) and more. In each case, behaviour could easily be adapted to remove the sticking points and working with others could be improved relatively easily.

Senior manager who are seen as “Disciplined, demanding, smart, sometimes intimidating, not a back patter” are often amazed and sometimes quite perplexed to discover colleagues perceive them that way – because they see themselves quite differently. They assume that people know when they’re pleased with the job done. In one instance, a great sense of humour was hidden from colleagues, meaning something that could be an asset when building relationships wasn’t at all apparent. These managers communicate the factual and the negative information – and very seldom think about letting people know that they are doing well. That sort of feedback is deemed to be self-evident. Well, no, why should it be? If you need to communicate the negative, for heavens sake balance it with the positive messages too.

The article also highlights a fairly even divide (a third each) between managers who see themselves quite realistically, those who consistently underrate their performance, and those who regularly overrate themselves.  From our experience that probably hasn’t changed much in the last 15 years, although the broader adoption of 360 feedback may mean some of those who initially overrate themselves will adjust their perception more readily than they might have when the article was written. It is those inflated self-raters who often cause the most disruption in the business and who are generally considered less effective by their peers and subordinates. Managers who underrate themselves are seen more positively, possibly, the article speculates, because they work harder at improving.

Although quite long, and slightly dated in the first paragraph given the subsequent progression of 360 degree feedback, I found this piece thought provoking and worth reading. If you’d like to read the whole thing, here’s the link to the original article.

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Photo credit: Lamerie