This cast describes how to deliver feedback to skip level associates.

Giving feedback is one of the most important activities of an effective manager. Or actually, more precisely, delivering performance communications is one of the most important activities of an effective manager. Manager Tools created the Manager Tools Feedback Model to make it easier for managers to deliver their performance communications to their directs.

But what about the REST of a manager's organization? Can you give feedback to a "skip" – someone who works for a manager who works for you?

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This guidance disagrees with the old notion of praise in public, criticize in private, and recommends more effective behaviors.

Most of us have heard the phrase, Praise in public, criticize in private. Based on the title of this show, it's pretty obvious we disagree with the ideas. We won't argue that it doesn't mean well. It suggests some principles that make sense on a basic level. But too many of us think of it as the Holy Grail of performance communications, and then make bad choices based on its flaws.

Let's find out what's right, and what's wrong.

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This guidance recommends how to deliver both praise and feedback (though not together), and why they are both valuable – and completely different.

Lots of managers ask us about praise. Does positive feedback eliminate the need for praise? (No). What if I prefer to just give praise, and not positive feedback? (Sorry, doesn't work). Isn't praise just the opposite of negative feedback? (Definitely not).

What we think is that lots of us as managers just want to avoid being specific and direct. We understand why, and we're sympathetic. Work is hard, and generally most of us think we don't want to point out one small thing when there surely was ten good things we didn't see that day. We understand…and, we'll advocate for the directs. Managers are always telling us the same things, nearly at the same time: I really need more feedback from my boss, he owes it to me, I'm open to it, and he says he will. But, I'm not really comfortable giving feedback to MY team. I really need them, so I just give them lots of praise.

It's obvious that this managerial math doesn't really add up well…and that's why we're sharing how feedback and praise are both valuable, and how to give both.

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This cast describes WHEN to give feedback. How fast is too fast? How slow is too slow?

When we coach or train managers on feedback, one of the most frequent questions we get is about WHEN to give feedback. How soon is too soon? Is there a point at which a manager has waited too long? Can I give feedback right away if there are others around? Should I wait and give a bunch at the same time?

When's right? And why? Here's when, and why, and how.

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This cast describes how give feedback to a project team member if you are a project manager.

Despite Manager Tools stated disavowal of the matrix organizational structure, we've said before we know it exists, and many of us are in one. That means that there are project managers. We've said before that the Manager Tools original Feedback model is for managers only. So what do project managers do?

We're going to address just one part of the PM's challenges here: how to give feedback to project members. And the short answer is: use the Manager Tools PEER Feedback Model. And since now we're applying it to both Peers AND Projects, we might periodically call it the PFM . . . even though we generally shy away from acronyms. This is just another addition to the family of both Feedback casts and Basics casts . . . because we know that high performance managers and leaders and executives provide candid and direct feedback to their directs.

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This cast describes how to give negative feedback in an escalating way, over time, to improve performance.

We are asked every day to help managers solve problems they are facing. The most frequent type of question we get is a manager struggling with a direct's poor performance.

What do we do when we've tried giving negative feedback but it doesn't seem to be working? We've given repeated instances of feedback, and yet we don't see a change in a direct's behavior?

This cast describes behaviors for managers to engage in to ensure that they deliver feedback ethically and professionally.

Mark recently had an experience that was somewhat chilling for him. He was talking to a manager who wanted to show him how good he was at improving. This was a High D, forceful manager who described himself as “a recovering jerk”.

In this cast, we complete our 2-part series on the Starter Feedback Model, an EVEN SIMPLER method for delivering feedback.

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This cast describes an EVEN SIMPLER method for delivering feedback to help those managers who are struggling to implement it.

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