The need for skilful feedback for adults
It is always easier to give feedback to our students but it is much harder to give feedback to adults.
Holding a senior position very often requires you to provide feedback to the ones below your hierarchy to ensure improvement of work habits.
On one hand, we want to give feedback for improvement but on the other hand, we need to take into considerations about their pride and ego for those we are giving feedback to.
It is not easy to hold a higher position in any occupation unless you plan to be a ruthless and dominating ruler at your work place.
In general, most of us desire to have good relationship with all staff.
A good feedback should focus on the case or matter and it should never target at the person's personality or character.
Simple skilful feedback using CAM
Clarify (Prevent misunderstanding)
It is a great strategy to clarify what you may have observed or what you have perceived about the situation with the person you are concerned with.
We should never jump to conclusions that result with lots of misunderstanding and lack of empathy to the particular staff you are giving feedback to.
Find out from the person that you have observed with your concerns to clarify what you have in your mind so that you can find out problems or underlying reasons that you cannot see.
Misunderstanding can lead to a lot of anger for staff who receives an unfair judgement.
Some teachers may have certain good reasons for the things that they do where observation cannot provide all information.
Underneath the iceberg can have problems you cannot see from the surface purely by observation.
Affirmation (Praise)
It is great to identify the strengths and positive actions done.
Everyone likes to be praised even for young children.
We should identify the value and potential with non-judgemental responses to provide encouraging words and identifying what has worked well and find out the reasons for the good practice.
Affirmation often gets the staff to continue with the good work and be aware what is considered good practices. Motivation can drive the desired behaviours for the positive outcomes.
Use good mentoring languages (Right approach)
Using mediational questions, you can lead and ask questions that communicate concerns and give constructive suggestions to stretch the receiver’s thinking, learning and planning.
This stage often requires good questioning techniques.
Most people tend to give direct advice or instruction. This is really a top-down approach.
Example of mentoring language:
You: How can you do it differently when you told the customer that it was over the other side?
Staff: Maybe I can bring him to the section.
The use of mentoring languages is mainly to get the staff to reflect on what could have been done better without suggesting or ordering what should have been done. It is a bottom-up approach.
When the idea comes from the staff, it provides ownership and it may internalise better with the staff.
I have written about mentoring languages in greater depth in a past article.
In conclusion
In all the feedback you can give regardless of your position as a senior teacher or manager, the basic need of any human is respect.
Leading the person who needs your feedback and still providing the due respect is an effective way to guide any staff.
Disclaimer: This is my personal reflection and I am not in any position to instruct anyone what they should do. I am not responsible for any action taken as a result of this post. My post can only be a reference for your further research and growth. By reading this post, you acknowledge and accept that. All images and pictures were taken from google images that are free from copyright under labelled for reuse.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://fun2learn.vornix.blog/2018/07/25/the-need-for-skilful-feedback-for-adults/
Cool, it's so true @fun2learn , giving feedback to adults is much harder. We have to remember that we are all life long learners, not just when we are in school. I am certainly still learning heaps about myself even now as a mum!
Learning is a never-ending process since the world is changing ever second. Welcome to steemit! There will be a lot of things to learn here!
The ability to listen to and accept constructive criticism is a skill that is essential to your personal growth and development. Unfortunately, many adults have a difficult time taking these as learning moments and rather look at them as negative attacks. This is why it is so important to know how to navigate this situation in order to have the discussion be effective .
Well-said. Being humble to learn is really a great attitude for personal growth but as you said many adults may take feedback negatively.
Certainly, forming adults is more complex than working with young people, not only because they have a set of learning and experiences that sometimes prevents them from learning new things. Respect is the basis of everything, and valuing what people already know is important.
In education, we often refer to the knowledge that these people already know as prior knowledge. Thanks for your comment. Respect plays an important role in any society.
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