For decades, there has been a leadership mantra that feedback is an essential ingredient in the recipe for success. Leaders worldwide observe employees, collate data, and gather other key sources of information in order to sit down with their direct reports and summarise what has and has not gone well.
Feedback is so ingrained in employees that they seek and expect it from their leader as the main way of understanding their progress, opportunities for improvement, and ultimately, success.
And feedback is everywhere, from a coaches critique of a player’s game to the school teacher sharing with parents what their child needs to work on. Even in relationships, we provide feedback with each other as a way of sharing what we would like to see more of, and often, what we would like to see less of!
Given we know that employees thrive when they feel supported and engaged, perhaps it makes more sense to start focusing on the future instead of the past?
Feedforward is about looking to the future and not the past. The purpose of feedforward is to provide individuals with suggestions for the future and to help them achieve positive change from the behaviours that they select. Feedforward offers constructive guidance on how to improve before the scenario has occurred.
Feedback example: “When you delivered your presentation yesterday, you had far too much information on each slide. No-one could read the information so your message was lost”
Feedforward example: “One of the suggestions I have for your presentation next week is to only place a couple of key points on each slide. This will enable you to talk to your main message and not overwhelm the listener”
Award-winning leadership coach and author Marshall Goldsmith felt that there was a better way than the traditional feedback approach and joined forces with author Jon Katzenbach to coin the term “feedforward”.
Goldsmith believes that there is a fundamental problem with all types of feedback - it focuses on the past, and not on the vast variety of future opportunities. That feedback can be static, as opposed to expansive and dynamic.
Goldsmith's theory has been supported by a detailed study conducted over several years and involving thousands of leaders.
The study focused on the feedforward methodology and reinforced the views of Goldsmith and Katzenbach that feedforward was in fact better than feedback.
The following are eleven reasons why Goldsmith encourages leaders to ditch feedback and focus on feedforward:
Feedforward helps employees to focus on techniques that encourage a positive visualisation. Feedforward provides insights into ‘how’ an employee can be successful and ‘what’ they need to do to get there.
This means that feedback can be an exercise in negativity and defensiveness – an adult game of shifting the blame and not accepting responsibility. Feedforward doesn’t dwell on why the report was wrong – it shares ideas and directions on how to make it right.
Successful people tend to have a positive self-image and reflection on their own abilities. Focussing on tips to enhance success as opposed to sharing recollections where success was not achieved is a more positive approach.
Whilst feedback requires knowledge of the employee – feedforward can be shared by anyone who knows how to complete a task successfully.
Whilst feedback is supposed to focus on the performance and not the person – it is difficult to separate the negative feedback from the personal. Conversely, feedforward is about discussing something that has not happened yet.
Feedback can focus on negatives and send the message that the employee ‘is just made that way’, whereas feedforward is based on the assumption that the employee can make positive changes.
It is human nature to avoid difficult discussions, however, this avoidance is detrimental to employees. Feedforward is a more positive experience.
Leaders can cover the same points as feedback without reliving the past. As an example, they can share ideas on how to deliver a strong presentation as opposed to focusing on the bad parts of an old presentation.
Feedforward eliminates judgement and defensiveness as the focus is purely on suggestions for the future.
Feedforward is free from judgement and there is a focus on being ‘helpful’. It is about sharing ideas, insights and tips to help an individual, team or business to be better. This allows it to be provided without needing to be in a position of power.
When the focus is not on defending or disagreeing – a lot more energy can go into active listening and being receptive to new ideas.
Take a moment to reflect on the last time that you received feedback and consider how much time you were actively listening to improve as opposed to the energy you put into defending your actions. Did you catch yourself becoming frustrated at your leader or questioning your value in the business? The reality is that feedback can be a difficult pill to swallow and if it is not done well, it can be disengaging for the employee and even result in a decline in performance.
Ultimately, feedback does have its place in the performance system and undoubtedly contributes to the performance appraisal; but the front windscreen is much bigger than the revision mirror for a reason. Perhaps it is time we focused more on the road ahead than the one travelled.
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Georgina is Senior HR Content Editor – Publications at Ai Group. She is an accomplished Human Resource professional with over 25 years of generalist and leadership experience in a broad range of industries including financial services, tourism, travel, government and agriculture. She has successfully advised and partnered with senior leaders to implement people and performance initiatives that align to business strategy. Georgina is committed to utilising her experience to create resources that educate and engage and is passionate about supporting members to optimise an inclusive workforce culture that drives performance.
