Are any of these situations familiar to you?

Feedback for the Faint-Hearted

How to Give Feedback that Improves Performance

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The secrets every manager should know that improve performance by 39%

A true story about feedback:

From reluctant beginner to black slope in one hour

Yes, this is a true story. Let's start at the beginning. I didn’t like skiing but in 1999 my husband persuaded me to go on a skiing holiday. The last time I’d been, 20 years before, had been a complete disaster. I had gone to Austria, to a part of the country where few spoke English and the accent was almost impenetrable. My friend Julia spoke no German at all.

Nightmare holiday

The whole holiday was awful from start to finish.  When I arrived I discovered that some valuables had been stolen from my bag.

We joined the ski-school. Our instructor spoke only German and so, as I was trying to ski, I was having to translate what little I could understand for Julia who could hardly hear what I was saying anyway. I discovered later that the only reason she had come was to get over her ice phobia. Not a great reason to go skiing.

We could hardly keep up with the other beginners at the ski school so could never find out what the instructor was telling us. After two days, Julia got so dispirited that she joined a class for slow learners. The same woman fell on my right leg three times till it was black and blue and I got told off for having a bath after 8pm and disturbing the other guests who were trying to sleep.

Not really a holiday

We discovered, at the end of the holiday, that none of our fellow ski-school classmates were beginners at all. They had all been at least three times before. I returned home bruised, aching and not feeling as though I had had a holiday at all.

A grudging agreement

So you can imagine how keen I was to go skiing again. But I grudgingly agreed. I decided that, this time, I would get myself a personal coach. After all, I have been coaching people for many years and I thought (hoped) it would be better than the ski school.

My coach

So I found myself a coach. He was about 21 and an engineering student on his holidays. After just 10 minutes I knew I had one of the world’s best skiing coaches. How did I know? Easy. Because I was skiing. At the end of the first hour we stopped at the bottom of a slope.

The black slope

‘Just look at that slope’ he said, pointing behind me. I looked back. It wasn’t a slope; it was a cliff face. ‘Do you know what grade that slope is?’ he asked. I didn’t. ‘It’s a black slope.’ He said ‘And you just skied down it.’

I was astonished. I could hardly believe it. And I couldn’t wait for my next session.

At the end of the week it was easy for my husband to persuade me to book again for the following year. So off we went and I got myself another coach.

A different coach

Within 10 minutes I knew I had possibly the world’s worst skiing coach. How did I know? Because I couldn’t ski. Not only that, but I wasn’t’ enjoying myself at all. It was awful. At the end of a grueling three hours my coach did me the great favour of leaving me at the top of Whistler Mountain.

By then I could hardly ski at all. It took me three hours to get down and by the end I was exhausted. So I booked myself in for a relaxing massage and decided I would never ski again.

Never again

As I lay on the table having the aches and pains smoothed away by a consummate expert I reflected on my experience. As a coach and trainer of many years standing, what could I learn from this?

What had that first coach done that was so effective? How had he taken me; someone who did not want to ski and had a very low level of skill in this area, to skiing down a black slope in just one hour?

And how had the second coach taken someone who had made such great progress in one week and was really looking forward to more skiing and turned them into someone who never wanted to ski again in just ten minutes?

The secret to effective coaching

I carefully reviewed what each coach had done. It didn’t take me long to work it out. When I thought back to the first coach I realised that all he had done was to point out everything I was doing well. Now that can’t have been easy in the first ten minutes. He didn’t have much to go on. But somehow, he managed it.

What did the second coach do that was so destructive? You’ve guessed it. All he did was point out every mistake I made (well, perhaps he missed a few, but it didn’t feel like it).

So simple

I was mortified. It was so simple. In fact it was what I had often heard you should do. But that was theory. Here it was in practice. The evidence of how well it worked was undeniable.

Then I thought to myself ‘Have I ever treated anyone like my second coach did?’ And back came the answer ‘Yes’. Not only have I done it, but clients have paid me lots of money to do it. So people had paid me to reduce the performance of their employees.

It was a horrible moment. I decided that, from then on, I would use the technique of my first skiing instructor. And the results were amazing. Yes, I’ll admit it was hard at first.

But there must be times when you can’t do it

There are times when it’s easy to think that there is just nothing good about what someone is doing. But usually that means you just need to look harder. You’ve just got into the habit of seeing what’s going wrong.

Feedback that drastically improves performance

Feedback, given properly can improve performance by 39%, so the research shows. I think it can do more than that when you do it really well. From zero to black slope in one hour is much more that 39%.

To get started sign up for my FREE 5-day email–course on how to give feedback that improves performance.

Every day, starting today, you will get valuable information on how to give and receive feedback. Or you could just go right ahead and buy the book!

 

Buy Feedback for the Faint-Hearted now

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This booklet shows you how to give feedback confidently in easy steps every time

In Feedback for the Faint-Hearted you will discover:

• What feedback really is and what it isn't. Most people think that feedback can either be negative feedback or positive feedback. This is wrong. Thinking that way just makes it more difficult to give feedback
• How giving helps. You will discover what impact feedback can have on how others behave and on their performance
• The different forms of feedback. There are many different ways to give and get feedback. Some actually reduce performance and make things worse. You need to know which they are and make sure you're getting it right.
• How to give feedback so called 'positive feedback' when someone has done a great job. Many people don't bother to do this. It's one of the easiest ways to get people to do a better job and to learn from their experience. This untapped resource could be worth thousands to you
• How to give so called 'negative feedback' when things have gone really badly. It's so easy to rush in a criticise someone who has made a mistake. Usually it doesn't help. It's damaging. So what should you do instead? Find out in this booklet. Give negative feedback and still leave your team feeling motivated.
• How to give written feedback. Many people hate writing feedback on appraisal forms or giving any other kind of written feedback. In Feedback for the Faint-Hearted, you will discover how to deal effectively with these situations and leave your team-members motivated even in the worst situations
• How to ask for feedback. Often when we get 'negative feedback' it's really de-motivating and doesn't help at all. Even so-called 'positive feedback' can be damaging or useless. In Feedback for the Faint-Hearted you will find an easy tool guaranteed to get you useful feedback every time.
• How to deal with unwanted, unfair or unpleasant negative feedback. Most people have to deal with this at some time or other. You will discover easy ways to deal with this kind of feedback that will turn the whole situation round.
• You will get specific examples you can modify and use yourself.
• You will see a comparison of different methods of giving feedback so you can decide for yourself which will work best for you
• How to respond to compliments. Many people find this surprisingly difficult. In Feedback for the Faint-Hearted you will discover an easy way.
• A list of 47 questions that will make it easy for you to give effective feedback the easy way

Choose the best option for you

Basic Option £3.87/$7.77

Feedback for the Faint-hearted How to give and get feedback that improves performance. The booklet that contains the secrets to giving feedback that really does change behaviour.

only £ 3.87

Or

$7.77

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Performance Management Set

Only £9.95/$19.57

Total Value £11.61/$23.31

This set gives you the basic skills you need to manage performance and improve results. It contains:

Feedback for the Faint-hearted

And

Praise and the Appraisal: 112 tips and techniques to make appraisals work. The easy to use guide that helps you to use appraisals to improve performance.
And

How to Write Objectives that Work 52 tips and techniques to help you write effective objectives The best-selling booklet that takes the effort out of writing objectives.

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Premium Set

Special Price £19.95/$39.97

Total Value £35.67

Feedback for the Faint-hearted:

And

How to Write Objectives that Work 52 tips and techniques to help you write effective objectives The best-selling booklet that takes the effort out of writing objectives.

Praise and the Appraisal: 112 tips and techniques to make appraisals work. The easy to use guide that helps you to use appraisals to improve performance.
And

The Quick Guide to Dealing with Difficult People: 101 tips and techniques for dealing with all kinds of difficult behaviours including bullying, negativity, insensitivity and indecisiveness

How to Interview Successfully: Your guide to successful recruitment and the steps to follow.

Attendance Management tips and techniques: How to deal with absence problems, what to say and what to do to reduce absence and improve your bottom line.

Bonus 37 page eBook on how to deal with bullying, covering every aspect of this behaviour, how to recognise it and how to stop it in its tracks.

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