Summary
It's useful to know how you're doing at work, but feedback from managers and colleagues can often be unhelpful, upsetting, or even non-existent. So what's the best way to give and receive it?
Evan Davis and guests discuss some top techniques, particularly in the tricky area of negative feedback, and the importance of training managers in how to have these conversations. But feedback isn't just about managers - we learn the best ways for employees to receive and act on it.
Plus, how frequently should an employee's performance be measured - we discuss the pros and cons of the annual appraisal - and whether technology helps or hinders.
Evan Davis is joined by:
Catherine Hearn, UK HR director, Amazon Katie Obi, chief people officer, Advanced Margaret Cheng, HR consultant, executive coach and author of 'Giving Good Feedback'
PRODUCTION TEAM:
Producer: Simon Tulett Researcher: Paige Neal-Holder Editor: Matt Willis Sound: Graham Puddifoot and Hal Haines Production co-ordinator: Rosie Strawbridge
The Bottom Line is produced in partnership with The Open University.
(Picture: A woman and a man talking at a desk. Credit: Vladimir Vladimirov, Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | This is the podcast version of the programme. |
| 0:07.3 | It's got some extra goodies in it that we didn't have room for in the radio broadcast. |
| 0:11.0 | I hope you enjoyed. |
| 0:12.2 | Hello, welcome to the programme. |
| 0:14.6 | How am I doing? |
| 0:16.4 | It's a question we all ask of ourselves. |
| 0:19.5 | We love to know what others think about us. |
| 0:22.1 | We crave that knowledge, but hate it, resent it when the assessment is negative. |
| 0:28.3 | Giving negative feedback is one of the hardest tasks a manager faces. |
| 0:32.9 | Positive feedback? |
| 0:33.9 | Much, much easier to deliver. |
| 0:35.5 | But it is meaningless if it isn't honest, and honesty |
| 0:38.8 | surely requires there to be some negativity from time to time. Now, personally, I struggle to |
| 0:45.3 | remember occasions on which I've had negative feedback, and this tells you everything that |
| 0:49.5 | goes wrong, by the way, partly because there's just too little negative feedback as bosses hate to hurt feelings. |
| 0:56.1 | Partly also because when I have had negative feedback and I have, |
| 1:00.4 | I somehow found it so distressing I've succeeded in burying it and my memory protects me from ever thinking about it, |
| 1:06.5 | which is not good. But it is a fascinating area of management, giving and receiving indeed feedback in a |
| 1:13.4 | constructive way. So how should you do it? Can it be confined to one annual appraisal for each |
| 1:18.5 | member of the team, or is it a year-round thing? And how should we, as employees, receive and |
| 1:24.4 | respond to feedback? I have three guests, plenty of experience in this area, |
... |
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