When providing feedback to employees, you will often find that employees respond to negative feedback with surprise. It’s inconceivable to them that anyone could fail to recognize the brilliance of their work. And if there were any problems with their work, it was due to someone else’s mistakes.
Of course I’m exaggerating, but not by much. Fact is, most people have a fairly high opinion of themselves (and I suppose that would include me as well). Most people like to think of themselves as stars, or at the very least above average.
And yet, it’s been shown (sorry, no link handy at the moment) that the true stars tend to rate themselves more modestly than the less stellar performers. Why is this? Perhaps it’s because the top people are well aware of their limits and acknowledge them, whereas the lower performers have no idea just how limited their skills are. And when confronted with those limits, they often deny the charge, blame others for their failures, or deem those limits not important.
So as a manager, how do you reconcile an employee’s inflated sense of self with your somewhat less flattering assessment? You need hard facts: metrics, examples, data points. The employee will typically try and shift the blame, and you need to be prepared for that with hard evidence that is undeniable.
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2 comments:
I think it's also key to give the employee frequent feedback. Sitting them down once a year and saying "you stink" isn't going to work. But frequent code reviews (with "you need to fix this and avoid that habit" comments), frequent conversations to check in ("seems like you haven't gotten much code written this week -- how does it seem to you") and so forth make it easier to make that cumulative case ("you need to shape up big time").
"This is what I like to call, Negative Feedback...." Sheriff Cyrus Buelton
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