Seeking Performance Feedback

I will show you a video where you’ll hear the CO of Accenture, one of the leading consulting firms, talking about the company’s decision to abandon their performance appraisal system in 2015. Take a look.

As you could hear, one of the primary motivations for revising the current performance appraisal system at Accenture was the need to receive more frequent, continuous feedback. Certainly more frequently than once a year. I would like to add another wrinkle to this conversation, which is you don’t have to wait for that feedback to come to you. You need to proactively seek feedback. A colleague of mine at Michigan, Ross Sue Ashford did a lot of research showing that the most effective managers proactively seek feedback. After every test they complete after projects they run even during regular staff meetings. Now, we’re often reluctant to seek feedback, because we feel like we’ll expose our weaknesses and vulnerabilities. What research shows is exactly the opposite.

If we proactively seek feedback, not only will be develop more accurate perception of how others perceive and understand us, but we’ll also be perceived as being more creative, more open, and more caring. It’s essential here to remain open to critical feedback. If you’re just seeking affirmation, that can backfire and people will view you as being less effective. Consider asking your peers, your direct reports, your boss, how am I doing? To give people a better opportunity to give you more constructive, perhaps critical feedback, ask what can I do to improve?

You can also ask more specific questions if you’d like to receive feedback on how to develop a particular skill, such as, what can I do to improve in communicating the status of my projects to team leaders. You will see that the key assignment for this week of the course revolves around seeking feedback. I’ll ask you to solicit feedback from your peers, your boss, your direct reports. Process that feedback, and try to respond to it effectively.