QUESTION:  Facilitating Politically Charged Feedback?

Dear Merry,

I am responsible for the executive development of the top 200 leaders at my global pharmaceutical company.  I have a team of 20 Generalists each of whom reports to a line of business.   We have just gone through a battery of assessments and I am wondering if you can give me any coaching on how to best support my Generalists in coaching their line leader on the assessment results?

RESPONSE:  Shift The Paradigm

Dear Executive,

It s great that you are thinking about this.  It is very important that you support your Generalists as they approach these conversations.  For someone at the Generalist level, giving the results of a leadership survey to a senior executive can be very politically charged.  Certainly giving feedback to somebody who contributes to your performance review or gives you your review is very touchy.

Here are my suggestions:

1. Shift The Paradigm:  Tell your Generalists to remember that the feedback session is not about them it s about the executive.  
   1. Usually a Generalist will spend a lot of time preparing to give the feedback to the executive, they feel on deck to deliver brilliant insights, and feel uncomfortable with this dynamic.  
   2. Ask the Generalist to shift the paradigm so that they are no longer in the hot seat.  Their job is not to give the feedback, but to facilitate the executive s process in assimilating what they find in the results and taking some action as a result of the survey data. 
2.  Create a Relationship:  Many large companies administer leadership surveys every year or 2 years at which time leaders find themselves overwhelmed with feedback.  Yet, if I ask them how the survey data has impacted them or their business, they rarely have anything of impact to report.  I would like your Generalists to think about how this could be more than just a 1-time event.  How can making feedback actionable become an ongoing part of the culture?  How can they become a valued leadership coach to their executives? 
3. Create An Action Plan:  At Break Through Consulting we use an Action Plan that takes what the executive is most passionate about working on and commits it to writing.  This becomes a bridge in their ongoing relationship as the Generalist supports the executive s efforts by checking in on their progress.  Are they achieving their goals?  If not, what is blocking them?  What support do they need?
   1. For the first round, I recommend that the Generalist let the executive choose 1 or 2 goals at most they are excited about working on.  Whatever issue the executive chooses to tackle is perfect for this first round.  Let them work on what they are passionate about.  This will help ensure an easy win and will build trust between the executive and the Generalist.  
   2. Once the first round goals are met, then the Generalist goes back to the executive and asks them to pick another issue to work on.  They create another action plan around that goal and the process continues.  After the 2^nd or 3^rd round, once trust has been established, then it is an appropriate time for the Generalist to ask the executive to take on any issues they may have been avoiding from the survey results. 
4. Point to Business Results: The Action Plan should capture potential business results if the goals are met and if no action is taken.  Then when the Generalist meets with the executive to evaluate progress they can capture the actual business results achieved in the executive s own words.  The goal is that the executive and the Generalist build a trusting relationship that produces bottom-line business results for the organization by leveraging the investment made in assessments. 

Using these suggestions your Generalists will find that they are much more comfortable in these sensitive feedback meetings with senior executives.  In addition, HR will demonstrate their value as a strategic partner to the business line by sharing the business impact of their assessment dollars.

PS.  If you are interested in how to leverage your assessment dollars, don t miss my workshop at HR.com s Employers of Excellence Conference on October 26^th - "HR as Strategic Partner and Internal Coach:  Strategies to Revolutionize Feedback Into Action".

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