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Why do top
executives have difficulty receiving and responding to
constructive criticism? Because so many high-fliers have
received little criticism in their careers. As Chris
Argyris, director emeritus of the Monitor Group
(Cambridge, Massachusetts) and the James Bryant Conant
Professor of Education and Organizational Behavior
Emeritus at Harvard Business School, writes in “Teaching
Smart People How to Learn,” a 1991 Harvard Business Review
article, “Because they have rarely failed, they have never
learned how to learn from failure.”
The high
aspirations and high standards that drive top performers,
Argyris explains, are matched by an equally high fear of
failure and a tendency to feel shame at not living up to
those high standards. The result is that when receiving
criticism, the highest-performing employees in an
organization are the ones most likely to become defensive.
Although
getting high-fliers to take in and respond to honest
feedback can be tough, it’s not impossible. Here are some
tips for getting through your best managers’ defenses and
getting your feedback heard.
Prepare as
if for a presentation. Louise Axon, head of the leadership
and management development practice at The Forum Corp., a
management training and consulting firm in
Boston, recalls a tricky situation she once helped the CEO of a
professional services company navigate. He needed to
discuss performance issues with a senior manager who had
received little feedback in his career, despite the fact
that his arrogance and tendency to build his own power
fiefdoms ran counter to the company’s collaborative
culture.
The CEO
spent a week and a half seeking out and recording specific
instances of the senior manager’s negative behavior, and
then he organized what he gathered according to key
themes. Then, when he sat down with the senior manager, he
framed the discussion in terms of what the senior manager
valued most—maintaining credibility within the
organization—and showed him how each category of negative
behavior worked against his own interests and those of the
firm.
Reinforce
the message—repeatedly. Chances are, you won’t see
improvement after one discussion. Indeed, it may take two
or more conversations for the person even to acknowledge
that there is a problem with her behavior.
In the
story above, the CEO gave the senior manager a week to
mull over all the evidence of how his own negative
behaviors were undermining his reputation and
effectiveness, and then followed up with a second
discussion. After that, the CEO not only met weekly with
the senior manager but also stayed on the alert for
opportunities to give this manager immediate feedback. For
example, he called the executive right after a meeting in
which the offending behavior was repeated.
Customize
the conversation. Getting your message heard will be
easier if you tailor your delivery to fit the employee’s
communication style. If your direct report likes to make
quick decisions and is sometimes impatient with detail,
then come to the point quickly and present only as much
supporting detail as is necessary to establish the
credibility of your point. If, however, your direct report
is highly detail oriented, be prepared to walk
step-by-step through specifics.
Whatever
the employee’s communication style, minimize her
defensiveness by using nonjudgmental, neutral language.
For instance, avoid “You did this” constructions, which
can sound accusatory.
Be aware
of power signals. Think about what location says about
power. If you choose your office as the setting in which
to deliver unexpected and unwelcome criticism, then you
might not want to sit behind your desk because to do so
signals your greater power in the relationship. “The more
equal the power, the more you’re likely to have a
give-and-take,” says Michael Beer, the Cahners-Rabb
Professor of Business Administration Emeritus at Harvard
Business School. Sitting together at a small working table
or in a pair of armchairs will establish more neutral
ground.
Consider
what the culture communicates. If the corporate culture
isn’t clear about what it takes to be successful, “then
constructive feedback can only go so far,” says Joseph R.
Weintraub, professor of management at Babson College
(Wellesley, Massachusetts). He points to Whirlpool as an
example of a corporation that communicates particularly
well what it takes to be successful: It stipulates about a
dozen dimensions of success, he says, all of which are
essential for being promoted to one of the top seven
positions in the company.
If a
company clearly values continual improvement and rewards
its employees, including its top brass, for engaging in
it, then it’s more likely that executives will be willing
and able to get past their own defensiveness to hear what
they need to do to get to the next level.
Anne
Field is a Pelham, New York-based business writer. |
