Courageous leaders make the time to observe

A potential client has asked me to provide insight into what kind of programme I can deliver to enhance their managers capability to give feedback. While summarising what I can deliver it got me thinking again about the importance of observation skills.

It is impossible to truly give feedback unless you gather evidence to populate your feedback conversation - and like the good auditor I was when I first started my career I continue to appreciate the importance of evidence. I know that to give feedback I need to observe and gather evidence that covers the basic CAVE principle I used when.auditing financial reports for organisations. The evidence needs to be COMPLETE, ACCURATE, VALID AND actually EXIST.

In my experience far too many managers give feedback based on hearsay, judgement and even 'gut instinct' and they end up "labeling" the person to whom they are giving feedback. For example they might tell them they are a poor listener or they might tell them they are a great listener - either way it is nothing more than a label they can wear across their forehead.

Feedback must provide specific information about the behaviours the person used and the impact these behaviours had on you (as the giver of the feedback) and then it is up to the person receiving the feedback to decide if this was a good impact or not.

Courageous leaders make the time to observe so they can gather evidence and then they gather the courage to share the feedback in a constructive conversation.