Giving Frequent Feedback
I have been always blessed with some of the strongest Advisory Boards for my business. The trick has been getting executives who are not potential customers but with great experience that my management team could be well served with. In one of those recent Advisory Board meetings a very interesting discussion came up. Which I thought is a great point of learning for me.
My management team started a discussion around how to create a very effective rewards and recognition system when you have very different kind of jobs (product development, services, sales etc).
Some of the advice we got was pretty insightful. First, most agreed that while we need to have programmatic methods, they tend to be fundamentally too broad to be effective.
Instead, the push was to understand that if employees are clamoring for more rewards and recognition from management/leadership, there is a larger message here. The organization is saying that the feedback mechanism is not often enough or strong enough.
In other words, if employees were to very often get feedback on (*) how what they are doing aligns to the larger plan for the organization (*) what they are doing well and (*) what course correction is required, their sense of alignment, contribution and participation would solve the root cause of the problem why they feel they are not being recognized.
It was also felt that this forum should give the employee an opportunity to give quick feedback to the manager on what the manager needs to provide/do to help the employee achieve his/her goals.
One board member talked about a 10-10 practice. Every two weeks he makes himself and all managers in his group sit with all direct reports for a 10 minute discussion on giving feedback – 20 minutes either way as described in the two preceding paragraphs.
Another member talked about a variation of the same being practiced in the whole company (large strategy consulting company).
That was a pretty interesting learning for me. Understanding the root cause of why employees feel they are not being rewarded or recognized enough.
Worthwhile idea to copy.
Do you have any experience on this? What has worked? What has not?
Rajib
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Natasha’s Guitar recital 2011
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2010 – the year that was
India vs Germany
White Rock Marathon Dallas 2010
On Dec 5, 2010, I went to Dallas to run the White Rock Marathon. Actually, I ran the half marathon. It was cold and windy. However, the flat roads helped. It was awesome fun with 22,000 runners and thousands and thousands of spectators on the road. Including two news helicopters. Roger, Mita and Rajiv Roy was there. It was great to see how much Mita has picked up running. Roger was usual strong self.
I had my career best half marathon at 1:54 !! That is around 8:40 per mile for over 13 miles. That got me a rank of 1664 in a field of about 10,000 half marathoners.
We raised money for Scottish Rite Hospital who do not charge for any of their patients. The event was covered by WFAA TV and I got some live coverage as well as two appearances on WFAA-s home page! Hullor, Chico and some of their friends played the band near the 12th mile. Natasha was there with them too!!
23rd Annual Jingle Jog 5K
On Dec 11, 2010, I ran with Sharmila in the 23rd Jingle Jog 5K race in Atlanta. We finished at 39 min 37 seconds. It was really cold but very festive. Runners had come with great festive dresses and there were a lot of decked up dogs!!!
After the run, my group folks from office got together for a great Starbucks get together!! Had a lot of fun!