Be Careful What You Reinforce: Feedback and Coaching
An employee's effort, commonly referred to as "work," consists
of the behavior(s) that he or she performs while on the job.
Effort has been described as being on a scale of high, medium,
or low. An employee's performance is the results, and is the
product of effort (work) and behaviors. Performance is typically
classified as being superior, average, or substandard.
When coaching
your subordinates you must understand and recognize the direct
relationship between an employee's behaviors, and the results
those behaviors produce for the organization. Not all behaviors
are appropriate for the workplace, and not all behaviors produce
desired results that drive organizational success. Effective
coaching includes effective feedback and mostly focuses on
desired results, and the behaviors that produce those results.
When giving supportive feedback it's important to avoid
reinforcing an employee's effort or "hard work," because it may
have little to do with desired behaviors and results.
Well-intentioned managers tend to do this with comments like,
"Way to go," or "I like your hard work." The problem is that
these comments tend to reinforce effort, rather than positive
results and success.
Feedback and coaching can be an
incredibly powerful tool when used properly. Likewise, when used
improperly it can be very damaging. Knowing how and when to use
feedback is very important, however, it requires just a little
understanding of basic psychology.
For one of the tests in Psychology 101, most students memorize
the phrase "A behavior rewarded tends to be repeated." Or stated
another way, "Reward the behavior you would like to see again."
These phrases are part of a greater understanding called:
Thorndyke's Law of Effect. Thorndyke made this discovery over a
hundred years ago, but the principle is just as sound today as
it was in his day. So remember, when you give feedback to
someone for a behavior, knowingly or even unknowingly, you are
probably going to see more of that same behavior. That's
because, "a behavior rewarded tends to be repeated."
If, for example, you are unaware of what is really going on and
walk by an employee and casually say, "I sure appreciate your
contributions today, you're looking good," you could
inadvertently reinforce bad behavior. The employee could have
just made a serious mistake or even have been rude to a
customer. Subconsciously the employee would believe that the
inappropriate behavior had just been reinforced and should,
therefore, be repeated.
The Effort verses Performance illustration on this page is an
example I use in my feedback workshop. It's interesting to ask
managers, and even executives, what type of feedback they would
give employee A? What type for employee B? And, what type for
employee C? Clearly, employee A is working very hard, but is
producing only average results. This could even be the result of
the manager rewarding this employee's effort, rather than
focusing on the results the employee is producing.
Employee B, on the other hand, is able to achieve good results
by working smart, not hard. It would be important to reward this
employee's knowledge and ability, or the manager may see an
erosion of the performance. So, frequent supportive feedback
mostly focused on results and success would be the appropriate
prescription for this employee.
Employee C is one of those rare people who have mastered his/her
job. He/she has learned short cuts and "tricks of the trade"
that enable him/her to be successful without experiencing
burnout. This employee obviously needs and deserves regular
supportive feedback on his/her performance. By the way, it's not
uncommon for people in employee C's situation to get bored or
even look for another job if he/she doesn't receive recognition
and praise through frequent supportive feedback.
On the job many employee actions tend to follow the type of
feedback and coaching they
receive from their manager. In other words, if a manager's
feedback to an employee is mostly in a particular area, then the
employee's behavior is more likely to follow in that particular
area than it is in another area. For example, a manager has a
choice of giving feedback in the following five areas:
1. Employee's character such as honesty, truthfulness and
trustworthiness.
2. Employee's intentions such as, "I'll try to fix that
tomorrow, boss."
3. Employee's effort such as, "Hey there, look how hard I'm
working."
4. Employee's behaviors such as what the employee does.
5. Employee's results such as the measurable success he/she
produces.
If you reinforce an employee's positive character traits, you
could see more of those good traits. If you reinforce a person's
intentions, that's what you may get, just more intentions. If
you reinforce effort, you could motivate the employee to work
harder, not necessarily smarter. If you reinforce behaviors, you
could see the employee repeating that same behavior; hopefully,
the behavior will produce desired results. And if you reinforce
the positive results the employee actually produces, the
employee will focus more on being successful and figure out for
himself/herself what behaviors (along with the effort needed for
the behavior) will produce the results. In my coaching of people
at all levels I try to give feedback on character, results and
behavior. And I do so in that order because those are the three
desired results I want to see the employee repeat.