Feedback is intended to reinforce a behavior that is positive in nature to the appraiser and desirable as a repeated notion. Feedback can also be given for behaviors that are desired for change or as one of my mentors use to say “coach them in or coach them out”. Either way, the individual that receives the feedback is ultimately responsible for supplying the continuation or change of named behavior(s). In recent years a popular form of appraising individual’s performance is by method of self assessment. I re-call when I was first asked to self assess my performance by means of literally reviewing myself. When I conducted the self assessment I had the opportunity to reflect on my interactions, responses to others and respective correlating competency attainment.
The self-assessment revealed that I was very task oriented. I began to delegate more and make a point to ask others for input and listen to others contributions, instead of working in a vacuum. As part of my self assessment I also noticed I had to work on team building, it had become apparent that most of my day consisted of project management with a team that consisted of (1) or (2) people. This did not create the opportunity to gain others perspectives within cross-departmental functions. I started to inquire why my heavy focus on tasks, instead of driving joint workmanship by involving the true motivators that cause movement. I began to take on the role of becoming a business partner, involving myself in each aspect of the departments needs. To become a better rounded leader it was evident I needed to make a change and gain others trust and joint collaboration.
The first action I took in this effort is I made it a point to take each one of my team members to lunch and talk about how things are going not only at work, but in their personal lives. Then I began to explore other departments by doing a weekly walk through, showing presence and involvement, this was only step 1.Phase 2 was to connect often, follow-up by scheduling frequent check-ins and praise others. I began to see that people responded to these acts positively, they began seeing that Human Resources cared, by coming to them. This helped create unity and allowed the opportunity to discuss shortcomings departmentally and explore alternative solutions. My boss at the time, the Senior Director of Human Resources advised me to make myself available to allow for diverse collaboration. She supported me throughout this process by telling me when she noticed I was being task oriented, when I needed to spend more time going to others and when I should be proactive about following up continuously.
This really helped me share my sense of urgency and care in an effective, collaborative manner that made people feel like I kept their best interest top of mind.