Welcome back to Giving Helpful Feedback. In this video, we explore the benefits of giving specific and behavioral feedback. This skill is the same whether you're giving positive or negative feedback. What does it mean? When you're giving feedback you want to focus on behavior that you can observe with your own two eyes. You also want to be specific and avoid vague descriptions or evaluative statements. This is best illustrated with examples. Let's first look at the difference between specific and non-specific language. Here's an example of feedback on a student's essay. Your paragraphs don't make sense. Would you call that specific or vague feedback? I would say that's quite vague. Here's another example. You need a topic sentence at the beginning of this paragraph. Is that specific or is that vague? That's much more specific than the prior example. Now, let's look at behavioral feedback. Again, you can see it. It isn't just a guess or a deduction. Think about these two statements, this is about somebody's cat. Here's the first one. You should do a better job feeding the cat, or the cat did not get dinner tonight. The first statement is accusatory, even complaining. You should do a better job feeding the cat. The second is a statement of observable behaviors. The cat did not get dinner tonight. Let's go on and provide more examples that will clarify the difference. Say an employee is heard using inappropriate language with a customer. Here's the wrong way to approach them. You can't talk like that. Instead, you could say, I overheard you using inappropriate language in front of one of our important customers. Our company has a zero tolerance policy regarding this type of language. Notice how specific that comment was. You noticed a specific behavior, bad language, and you also expressed why it must be stopped without sounding inappropriate or accusatory. Now, another example. Is this feedback specific and behavioral? Bob, I'm concerned about your work. How would Bob feel after getting this feedback? Maybe he would feel a little bit uneasy because it isn't specific or behavioral, and he doesn't quite know what she means. What would be a better way of expressing this same point? You could say, Bob, I'm concerned about your work on this project. You were half an hour late to yesterday's staff meeting, and then told me you hadn't read the preliminary report we were discussing. Today, you tell me you're taking off three hours early for a dental appointment. You're holding things up, and I need you to be here at 4 PM. This feedback leaves no gray area about what the problem is. It is specific and behavioral. It also says why the problem is a problem and how to fix it. This brings us to two more important points when we're giving negative feedback. When you're feedback is specific and behavioral, and it's negative, also be sure to say why it's important to fix the behavior, this will serve as a motivator to your employee, and how to correct the behavior, so that your employee feels empowered to make the needed changes. Why and how. Let's go back to the extended break example and explain why it's important. It's important to keep your break at 30 minutes because other people depend on you. Giving why information lets the employees see things from your point of view, and helps them see how their work fits into the organization as a whole. And here is how to correct it. You need to limit your break to 30 minutes. If you need to, bring your cellphone so that you can check the time. It's helpful to give how information so that the employee knows how to fix the behavior. This gives employees a goal and allows them to improve. In summary, when you give negative feedback, make sure it's specific and behavioral. Also, give information about why it's important, and how to correct the problem. Sounds like a lot of work? Maybe, but it will be more work for you if you and the employee don't see eye to eye. And the good news is that you can use these same techniques when the situation calls for positive feedback. Let's look at positive feedback. It should be specific and behavioral, too. Here's an example. Juan, I'm really impressed with the job you did. How would Juan feel after getting this feedback. He would probably feel good, but he might not know what was so impressive about his work. Could it be improved? How about this? Juan, I really like the work you did on the Boxer account. They increased their purchases from us by 22% last month, and I got a call a few days ago from Dan Boxer saying how quickly you responded to the specification changes for the MI-7 microchip. This feedback leaves no gray area about what was impressive. It is both specific and behavioral. Notice that while positive feedback should be specific and behavioral, it doesn't have to have how information. That's because you want to keep them doing the same thing that they were doing before. You may be wondering, why is it so important to be specific and behavioral. The simple answer is that many recipients of negative feedback will tend to think of ways to defend their behavior. By being specific, they can more easily see exactly what the issue is. Specific and behavioral information also stimulates learning because recipients know exactly what they did right. Remember when we talked about super charging your feedback? Specific, positive feedback makes it much more likely that the desirable behavior will be repeated. Let's try a practice example. In our first example, your company has a strict dress code of wearing a suit and tie for men. Your company sells software to banks, so your dress code is designed to help employees fit in with banking culture. Your new employee, Roger, has come into work wearing casual clothing. But in addition, his hair is messy, and his shirt is wrinkled. This has occurred now for three days. You say to Roger, Rog, you need to wear business clothing and adapt a more professional appearance. How can you make this feedback more effective. Put the video on pause and take a few minutes to write down your answer. Okay, a couple of things. Was your feedback specific and behavioral? Did you give why information and how information? Here is one way you could give this feedback. Hello, Roger, would you come into my office? I need to give you some pointers on sales. I need you to wear a suit and tie for work, along with an ironed shirt. Our customers use this dress and it makes us feel more like trusted partners to them. A suit from Jake's Mens store is good. You can also get your shirts pressed at Andy's. I'd also like you to comb your hair for a more formal look. Again, that's the way our customers like it. Take a look at Mike, the senior sales associate, he's a really good role model. Feedback about personal grooming can be very difficult to make and hinting about it, unfortunately, usually does not work. You need to be direct, but non-judgmental, and give easy ways for employees to solve the problem. That wraps up our first skill. In summary, negative feedback is most effective when it is specific, behavioral, and gives why and how information. And don't forget positive feedback. When you are specific, behavioral, and give why information, you supercharge performance. This is Tracy Jennings, and thanks for watching Giving Helpful Feedback. [MUSIC]
