November 30, 2018

Tell the difference

Difference

The thing about feedback, good and, um, corrective, it lets them know we can tell the difference.

Suppose you have two team members. One is great, she pulls her weight and goes the extra smile when the going gets tough. She has an attitude you wish you could clone. One is not so great, he goes missing on the task, comes in late and goes home surely. Not your model citizen.

Give no feedback, what do you get?

The weight-puller sees no benefit in all that effort, the slacker sees no dis-benefit and feels their behaviour is condoned, and the weight-puller quickly feels like a chump for expecting to be noticed and … starts to slack off.

Without feedback, everything descends to the lowest common denominator.

The difference: A “Great job!” here and there, a promotion, and exactly the opposite.

Skippy strategy: Show them you can tell the difference.

Category:
Teams