There is an art to giving and receiving feedback. To get better, feedback is necessary – but it also can backfire if handled poorly. This session is for managers and non-managers and addresses the art of feedback and working with subordinates or peers/team members.

1. United States Government Accountability Office
The Art of Giving,
Receiving, and Eliciting
Feedback
Beverly L. Norwood
Director of Leadership and Executive Programs
U.S. Government Accountability Office
July 26, 2012
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2. How do you react to the prospect of
giving, receiving, or eliciting feedback?
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3. Key dimensions of leadership behavior
– GAO 2007
Empowering Personal
People & Teams Integrity
Competence Self Knowledge
Communication Vision
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4. GAO Consensus: Self-knowledge is
knowing and understanding…
 your personal and professional values, beliefs, needs,
strengths, and weaknesses
 your own leadership style and its relationship to your values,
beliefs, needs, strengths, and weaknesses
 how you impact others around you—up, down, and sideways
 how your style fits with or should be adapted for various
circumstances and people
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5. Rules for the Road
• Remain open to improving your self-knowledge
• Be mindful of the emotional responses that
giving, receiving, and eliciting feedback may
trigger for you and the others involved
• Prepare yourself to give, receive, or elicit
feedback by anticipating your reactions and the
reactions of others and by practicing what you
will say and do to maintain a constructive
dialogue
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6. Tools for Road
• Clear expectations
• What can you and others control,
influence, and simply have to live with
• The continuum for giving and eliciting
feedback
• Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI) Model
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7. Expectations are critical
Consider…
Have you taken the time to
set clear expectations for
those you supervise?
For example, have you
given your direct reports
examples of work products
that reflect the quality and
level of detail you are
looking for?
Do you know what your
direct reports expect or want
from you?
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8. Who Is In Control?
1. We are in
control.
2. We can
influence.
1
3. We have no
2 control.
3
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9. Continuum for Giving and Eliciting
Feedback
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10. Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI) Model
• Situation: Capture the situation (e.g., in the meeting
with Joe yesterday, in the kitchen this morning when we
were discussing x, or in the meeting with the requester
on Friday).
• Behavior: Describe the behavior (e.g., you interrupted,
you did not complete your assignment on time, or you
arrived late for work).
• Impact: Describe the impact (“so what?”) on you, on
coworkers, on an engagement/program, or on the
organization (e.g., because you kept interrupting your
team members in the meeting, they all shut down and
we didn’t have a chance to discuss the ideas of others).
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11. Giving Effective Feedback
Effective feedback enables the receiver to walk away understanding
EXACTLY what he or she did and the impact that it had on you and/or
the situation. The feedback should be:
 Timely
 Clear
 Specific
 Nonjudgmental
 Actionable
Remember: Situation, Behavior, Impact (SBI)
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12. Giving Effective Feedback
• Creating and delivering a specific message based on observed
performance is key to effective feedback.
• When you tell a direct report, coworker, or even your boss that s/he
is a good leader, or that s/he communicates well, or that s/he needs
to be more strategic, you may believe that you are providing helpful
feedback, but these statements only evaluate or interpret behavior.
• They don’t describe behavior in a sufficiently specific way that a
person can learn and develop by repeating or avoiding the behavior.
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13. Giving Feedback: The Dozen Do’s
• Be specific when describing the situation
• Be specific when describing the behavior
• Acknowledge the impact on you
• Judge the behavior
• Pay attention to body language
• Use verbatim quotes (when possible)
• Recreate the behavior, if appropriate
• Give feedback in a timely manner
• Give feedback, check for understanding, then STOP
• Do say “I felt” or “ I was” to frame your impact statement
• Focus on a single message
• Be sensitive to the emotional impact of your feedback
• Source: Center for Creative Leadership: Feedback That Works: How to Build and
Delivery Your Message, Sloan R. Weitzel
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14. Giving Feedback: The Dozen Don’ts
• Assume
• Be vague
• Use accusations
• Judge the person
• Pass along vague feedback from others
• Give advice unless asked
• Psychoanalyze
• Qualify your feedback by backing out
• Use examples from your own experience
• Generalize with words like “always” or “never”
• Label your feedback in advance
• Sandwich your feedback with words like “but”
• Source: Center for Creative Leadership: Feedback That Works: How to Build and
Delivery Your Message, Sloan R. Weitzel
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15. Receiving Feedback:
• Listen Attentively
• Repeat only what you heard
• Ask for specifics, including what you are doing well
• Say “Thank You”
• Ask if you can check back
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16. Common Reasons for Not Eliciting
Feedback
• We don’t know how
• We don’t know who
• We don’t know when
• We don’t believe that we need to ask
• We fear the answer
• We fear the person we’re asking
• We fear the consequences of asking
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17. Eliciting Feedback: Consider
Whether you can stand to hear the answer, before
you ask the question
• Who to ask
• When to ask
• How to ask
• How to graciously show understanding if/when others
prefer not to give you feedback
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18. Eliciting Feedback: The Dos
• Set the stage
• Ask permission to ask
• Respect those who do not wish to provide feedback
• Explain your purpose/goal
• Explain how you would like to receive feedback (e.g.
Situation-Behavior-Impact—SBI--Model)
• Ask open ended questions (scripted, neutral)
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19. Eliciting Feedback: The Don’ts
Don’t…
• Surprise people
• Create a situation where the feedback provider feels
backed into a corner
• Ask threatening questions
• Defend, explain, or rationalize
• Retaliate
• Burn bridges
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20. Questions and Contact Information
• Questions???
• Contact information: Beverly Norwood,
Director of Leadership and Executive
Programs, GAO (202) 512-6512 or
norwoodb@gao.gov
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