This guidance describes how to measure the amount of feedback you’re delivering to your directs.

We get asked all the time how much feedback is enough. We see this as very similar to the question, how many meetings should I have? Hopefully we all know there’s no right answer to that, other than, as many as you need. Sometimes a lot, sometimes not so much.

With feedback, the answer for 90% of managers 90% of the time isn’t whether what you’re giving is enough…the answer is, there’s no way you’re giving enough. ;-)

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This cast concludes our guidance on how to give feedback on how you want projects reported on.

Projects are generally governed by Horstman's Law of Project Management: Who does What by When. Sometimes it's a five year project, and sometimes it's 3 weeks. But it boils down to a string of tasks and deadlines, done by humans. And often we humans end up straggling after ripe blackberries when we should be meeting deadlines.

One thing all of us Project Managers can do is to ask for what we want, and then give feedback when we get it, and when we don't. Easy!

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This guidance describes how to give feedback on how you want projects reported on.

Projects are generally governed by Horstman's Law of Project Management: Who does What by When. Sometimes it's a five year project, and sometimes it's 3 weeks. But it boils down to a string of tasks and deadlines, done by humans. And often we humans end up straggling after ripe blackberries when we should be meeting deadlines.

One thing all of us Project Managers can do is to ask for what we want, and then give feedback when we get it, and when we don't. Easy!

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This cast concludes our guidance on what to do and why when directs want to describe why they did what they did when you have given them negative feedback.

One of the big hesitations that many, many managers have to giving negative feedback is that they don't want to have a long conversation with their directs. They've tried to talk about a mistake before, they've tried to broach the subject, but it's never as easy as you want it to be. It happens even to the most well intentioned of managers. They were willing to tolerate some mistakes. They only mentioned this mistake because the direct repeatedly asked to be told how they're doing. Maybe they really didn't even want to, but they felt like they could this time.

And what happens? The direct gets defensive. The direct says well, let me explain. The direct says, but you don't understand. The direct wants to engage to win the point that they didn't mean to do it wrong, they didn't mean to have it come out wrong, what they did made sense before things didn't go well.

The manager thinks, to hell with this. What they did wasn't effective, they asked for me to tell them how they were doing, I did – politely, I might add – and they go ballistic. Not doing this anymore. These directs really don't comments – they want to get credit for wanting, but they don't handle it well. I'll believe what they DO, not what they SAY.

And so, everybody loses. But we have to tell our folks how they're doing, and still have time to get everything done and not have everyone angry and hurt all the time.

If you're a manager who isn't giving enough feedback because of the responses you get from directs, this guidance will help.

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This guidance describes what to do and why when directs want to describe why they did what they did when you have given them negative feedback.

One of the big hesitations that many, many managers have to giving negative feedback is that they don't want to have a long conversation with their directs. They've tried to talk about a mistake before, they've tried to broach the subject, but it's never as easy as you want it to be. It happens even to the most well intentioned of managers. They were willing to tolerate some mistakes. They only mentioned this mistake because the direct repeatedly asked to be told how they're doing. Maybe they really didn't even want to, but they felt like they could this time.

And what happens? The direct gets defensive. The direct says well, let me explain. The direct says, but you don't understand. The direct wants to engage to win the point that they didn't mean to do it wrong, they didn't mean to have it come out wrong, what they did made sense before things didn't go well.

The manager thinks, to hell with this. What they did wasn't effective, they asked for me to tell them how they were doing, I did – politely, I might add – and they go ballistic. Not doing this anymore. These directs really don't comments – they want to get credit for wanting, but they don't handle it well. I'll believe what they DO, not what they SAY.

And so, everybody loses. But we have to tell our folks how they're doing, and still have time to get everything done and not have everyone angry and hurt all the time.

If you're a manager who isn't giving enough feedback because of the responses you get from directs, this guidance will help.

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This guidance recommends how to give a lot of feedback about a specific event all at once.

Communicating with directs about their performance is an ongoing battle for most managers. We have good people, and we talk ourselves out of telling them about their mistakes. Wouldn't want to hurt their feelings, we say. It's a small thing, we say. I understand why he did it that way, even if it did turn out poorly, we say.

We have all kinds of reasons not to talk to our directs about their performance. Including when they do a bunch of stuff all at once, and there's both good and bad mixed in. Which comes first, we ask. What if the important stuff was bad, but there was good stuff, too, we ask.

It's not that hard, really. You're going to have embrace looking in the mirror, but it's easy once you start.

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This guidance recommends giving negative feedback only after a second instance, and only ON the second instance.

We've said many times that too many of us as managers wait too long to give feedback. Our overly simplistic model is driving down a straight road with our hand on top of the wheel. (You can have your cell phone in the other hand if it makes it feel more like you're really driving.) Imagine not moving your hand AT ALL. Even if the road is straight, and you were pointed straight, in 90 seconds you're going to end up almost in the ditch. If you find yourself in that situation, you're going to jerk the wheel hard to get back into your lane.

Managers see a direct doing something wrong, but they shrug it off. He's a good performer. Ahh, that'll pass. It's a small thing. I'll say something once a pattern develops. And then - in the managerial equivalent of 90 seconds of driving- suddenly we're having to have a conversation.Suddenly, there's a problem we need to discuss.Suddenly, it's stop by my office at the end of your day.

Nobody likes this model. Nobody suggests it works. But boy do managers defend their broken model when we suggest NOT waiting! The Manager Tools feedback model suggests doing what you ACTUALLY do when you're driving down a totally straight road: making small, even imperceptible, corrections constantly. NOT waiting until your direct is almost in the ditch, and you have to have one of those tough conversations we all dread.

And how do managers defend their broken model? Oh, well, I can't be giving feedback constantly. If we make small corrections, my directs will think they're always in trouble. And I want to be a little forgiving, after all. Won't they think I'm being picky?

So, for all you managers who think the Manager Tools Feedback Model is too picky, here's the cast for you. If you're uncomfortable giving negative feedback so quickly when things aren't quite right ... you don't have to. Here's why, and how.

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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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