Just about every advisor will tell you they have an organization that values feedback. But in practice, providing feedback often goes poorly for the giver as well as the receiver.

That’s because feedback is often delivered more as criticism and frustration than as coaching and an opportunity to improve—which, in turn, results in defensiveness and hurt feelings rather than the creation of a better path forward.

The good news: You can make feedback become a regular, expected and positive component of your business’s culture—turning feedback from a source of drama into a driver of growth.

The key is to approach feedback with the proper intention, and systematize the process so it’s a natural part of how your practice operates. So says Kirk Hulett, CEG Worldwide’s managing principal of teaming solutions, who recommends advisors adopt an eight-part framework for better feedback.

The purpose of feedback

Before giving feedback, or asking for some yourself, get clear on the role it should play in your business.

Feedback is designed to improve future performance—full stop. The whole purpose is to help the person, the team and the client get a better experience in the future. Before giving feedback, ask a basic question: Will this conversation make future performance better? It will if it follows these guidelines:

Feedback conversations should clarify what happened. You want to create a shared reality by naming the specific situation, describing behavior you observed and the impact of that behavior (to clients, to fellow team members, etc.) in a non-punitive way without exaggeration.
Feedback should produce an outcome. The conversation should close with a next step instead of vague goodwill. End with clarity about what's actually going to change, who owns that change, how that change will be supported and how you’re going to follow up.
Feedback should never be venting. If you use feedback to unload your frustration or prove a point or label someone's character, you're making the problem worse. You're not going to get the outcome you want, which is a change in behavior. You're just going to get defensiveness and walls. Feedback is not a courtroom where you prove you are right and the other person is wrong. It's about improving the next moment, the next meeting, the next client experience, the next team interaction and so on.

The candor catalyst

Hulett recommends that feedback conversations follow an eight-step framework for maximum success.

1. State the purpose and positive intent. Make it clear that you’re having a conversation to co-create a better outcome that will benefit you, the other person and the business. By leading with your positive intention behind the conversation, you help to lower any potentially defensiveness right from the start.

2. Name the situation. Be specific about when and where the incident needing feedback happened.

3. Describe the “what.” Describe the observable behavior in the way a camera would have captured it—not your interpretation of the behavior or your judgement about it. Don't use labels or pejorative terms. Instead, describe plainly what happened and especially what happened as compared to a standard that has been previously communicated. Observed behavior creates clarity and gives you something concrete to discuss—while labels just create an argument.

4. Explain the impact. Help the person understand why the behavior matters by connecting it to the outcome you want. Often in an advisory practice, that's going to be the client's experience or the team's effectiveness. Most people want to do a good job. So in this part of the conversation, you're helping them do a better job in the future.

5. Establish a shared reality. Now you shift to being a great listener. Ask a question such as “Is what I’m describing how you remember it? If not, tell me what you believe happened.” This starts a dialogue.

6. Check in. If you sense frustration, confusion or defensiveness from the person, give them a chance to clarity what was happening with them around the time of the event in question. This raises things you might not have known about that created the issue—maybe a blown-out tire on the way to work, or a family emergency earlier in the week.

7. Ask, listen and reflect. Repeat back what you heard from the person so they know you heard them and that you accurately understand what they told you.

8. Co-create the way forward. Don’t leave a feedback conversation with only vague goodwill (“I’m glad we talked.”). Remember, you want change. Conclude the conversation with a clear commitment about how the person will behave or act in the future, how that behavior's going to be assessed and any deadlines or due dates around that behavior.

Conclusion

Feedback should be delivered in a way that’s factual, respectful and actionable. Above all, use it to improve—not to gripe and vent. Be consistent in approaching feedback in this way, and you’ll truly have a team that values and harnesses the power of feedback.

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