Filed under: Employee Engagement
While talking with my friend the other day (for the ease of story telling I will call him John), he began to tell me that his boss had given him a report card to fill out. Everything sounded pretty normal up to this point, a lot of companies give their employees self-evaluations to fill out before their performance reviews. But this was not the situation John was in. John went on to explain that this was a report card he was to fill out about his boss. Sounds pretty noble of the boss, right? John then gave me more details about the situation. He went on to say that this was not going to be an anonymous process; John was supposed to put his name on the form he handed in. Not only that but he was to meet with his boss to discuss his answers, essentially he was going to have to give his boss a performance review.
I immediately got a knot in my stomach putting myself in that situation. I like to think that my boss and I have open and honest communication but the thought of grading him on a five point scale on his leadership skills is enough to make me queasy. I really don’t think John’s boss had any malicious intent, I think he really wanted honest feedback and then wanted to discuss how he could improve with his employees. But is this really the best way to go about doing that? I decided to ask an expert. I took my question to our very own Dr. Anna Erickson to get her thoughts on the situation.
Here’s what Anna had to say:
“Delivering feedback is tough. I’ve been delivering feedback to leaders for more than 15 years, and it’s rarely easy. In fact, most managers are not good at providing employees with feedback. Questar’s research shows that fewer than half (44%) of all employees are receiving regular performance feedback from their manager.
“In this situation the roles are reversed. With the power difference between an employee and his/her supervisor, it’s pretty unrealistic to expect that you’re going to get honest feedback without providing some promise of anonymity. That’s exactly why formal 360 feedback and upward feedback are so popular.”
If you would like some advice on how to give your boss feedback The Harvard Business Review had a great blog on the topic click here to see it.
– Beth Holine | Strategic Communications & Marketing Coordinator
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