Mr. Brown is coming! The Need for Feedback and Coaching
"Get a move on, Mr. Brown is coming!" Those were the words I
heard about once a month when I was a 14-year-old kid working as
a stock boy in a retail store. It was usually my store manager
making the statement. And Mr. Brown was our district manager who
came to inspect our store. The visit lasted a few hours and
during that time he would walk the store and look for things he
didn't like. I have no recollection of him ever speaking
directly to me, although I remember him watching from a distance
as I moved freight or stocked shelves. He seldom spoke to anyone
other than the store manager or assistant store manager. Even
department managers were denied his attention.
Then, a day or two after his visit, either my store manager or
assistant store manager would "read me the riot act" about
something Mr. Brown didn't like. It was usually something in the
back room, or a display I had made. I recall one time in
particular when it was alleged that I had been distracted during
the DM's visit. I was too frightened to ask what "distracted,"
meant, so I just said, "Yes sir." Later I found "distracted" in
the dictionary and wondered how it related to me and the way I
stocked shelves.
That type of leadership style was typical in those days--ruling
by fear and intimidation. Perhaps it would have been demeaning
for a district manager to speak to a lowly stock boy. But to me
he signified all that was successful and powerful. I thought to
myself, some day I would like to have that much power. But if I
do, I won't forget the people who move the product from the back
door to the sales floor and then out the front door. Now, over
four decades later with a lot of retail experience and more
education than anyone really needs, I understand why I felt as I
did in the early years of my career. I desperately wanted
someone to accept me and value my contributions. I was seeking
validation for my efforts. In short, I wanted someone in
authority to pay attention to me. But unfortunately, in that
archaic leadership climate, I never got it. It took eight years
of working in that store before I figured out that I deserved
better.
What I wanted many years ago is the same thing employees want
today. Nothing has changed, because the basic psychology and
needs of people haven't changed. What I wanted then, and what
employees want today is interpersonal feedback and developmental
coaching.
The amount, quality, and type of feedback and coaching employees
receive is directly related to such basic work issues as being
trustworthy, demonstrating initiative, showing morale, getting
along, and working productively. The failure to provide adequate
feedback is one of the primary causes of such problems as high
turnover, theft, shrink, poor customer service, poor operating
conditions, and low work performance.
If you doubt this, remember, the denial of feedback is the most
severe form of psychological punishment one person can inflict
upon another person. When someone makes us angry, at home or at
work, one of our first inclinations is to deny that person
feedback. And we do that by giving him or her the "cold
shoulder." The reason we use feedback denial at such times is
that we know from experience how we feel when others do the same
thing to us--it hurts!
Feedback and coaching is more
important than we think. Actually, interpersonal feedback is a
critical nutrient of life. We can only go a few minutes without
air, a few days without water, and a few weeks without food.
That's because those are the three most important physiological
nutrients of life for humans. But most people don't' realize
that the fourth most important nutrient of life for a mentally
healthy person is interpersonal feedback. That's right, feedback
is in a similar category to the three physiological nutrients.
When a person is denied feedback for even a few hours, that
person can not only feel the results of the denial, but that
person is likely to respond with unproductive and/or
inappropriate behaviors. So if your employees aren't producing
like they should, or if you see inappropriate behaviors from
them, it's possible that the underlying cause is the quality
and/or quantity of feedback they are receiving, probably from
you. And don't forget that the same thing is true at home with
your children.
The quality of any relationship, business or personal, is
dependent on the quality and quantity of feedback each person
receives from the other. If the feedback is poor, so is the
relationship. If the feedback is critical or abusive, so is the
relationship. But, if the feedback is positive, so can be the
relationship. Corporate executives, support staff, store
managers, and department managers can become blinded to the fact
that social pleasantries are an important type of feedback.
Saying to an employee, "Good morning, Ann, how was your
weekend?" is important feedback. What could be viewed by some
people as irrelevant or unnecessary chit-chat, is actually very
important feedback to most people.
Eye contact is a type of feedback. When we fail to look someone
in the eye, we are in essence denying that person a form of
feedback. We are saying you aren't important enough for me to
bother giving you brief eye contact. In our western culture,
effective feedback must include at least reasonable eye contact.
Some people require more feedback and coaching than others. We
call these people high maintenance because they can demand so
much of our time. Managers often shy away from giving these
people any feedback at all, because they are afraid the more
they give the more the employee will want. But in reality, by
denying a high maintenance person feedback, we actually make the
total situation worse, not better.
By denying me and the other employees feedback many years ago,
Mr. Brown used a form of psychological punishment on the people
he needed to make him successful. I don't know what his profit
numbers were in those days, because they were kept a closely
guarded secret. Whatever they were, they could have been better.
None of us in that store worked anywhere near our capabilities.
The amount and type of feedback we received caused us to work
just hard enough to get by. Remember, it's the hourly employees
who can make or break productivity. It's the hourly employees
who have the ability to give a store a friendly personality, or
not. It's the hourly employees who can make things happen, or
not. And to a large degree it's the hourly employees who can
make a store profitable, or not. Employees need and deserve
feedback and coaching. With it
they can make things happen; and without it they can make sure
things don't happen.
In this article we've looked at the importance of interpersonal
feedback and coaching in the work environment. Try this
experiment. Measure each day whether or not you have contact
with each employee. If you have contact, what type is it? How
much is it? Is it positive, negative, critical, constructive,
corrective, or abusive? What results do you see from your
contact? Did the employee react the way you expected? By
measuring a baseline of your feedback you'll be able to track
your progress as you work to improve it in the future.
"Fill My Bucket" the feedback workshop is based on the book,
Tell Me How I'm Doing, by Richard L. Williams, Ph.D. It
is designed to acquaint participants with the four types of
feedback and give methods for delivering the two most effective
types. To learn more about the "Fill My Bucket" feedback
workshop or CMOE's Coaching Skills workshop, contact a CMOE
Representative toll free at (888)262-2499.