COHERENCE - Training on Feedback, feedforward and recognition @ work. Introduction material (updated version 2021)

1. © COHERENCE.life
FEEDBACK,
FEEDFORWARD & RECOGNITION
Tools of the virtuous leader
2021-2022

2. © COHERENCE.life
GOOD TO KNOW
➤ This short introduction is a
preparation for the training
you will attend in a few days.
➤ Make sure you understand it
and write down the questions
you could have.
THANK YOU
for joining us!
TIME
Max. 20 min.

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ME AND YOU
Feedback is challenging. Why?
1. No feedback = no life!
2. We need it because we are relationship beings. We are
always adapting ourselves to the environment and to
others. Feedback is part of this adaptation process.
Feedback is food given back! It’s vital. No food and sooner
or later you die.
3. Feedback wakes up emotions, whether we want it or
not. It seems risky and some managers prefer to avoid
these emotions. They think it’s useless, or that the situation
is obvious and do not require any comment. Most of the
time it’s not. Keep in mind that no feedback is even worse
than a poor feedback!
4. In relationships, there is a sender and a receiver. When you
give feedback, you have to pay attention to the way the
receiver gets it. You never know what is received, that’s
the reason why you have to care.
Blah blah blah …
?!?
GIVER
RECEIVER

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Feedback is about
PAYING ATTENTION.
Think about it. Why do people want to be seen? Why
are some children doing stupid things? We, as human
beings, hate indifference. Even when we say that we
don’t need attention, we appreciate to be
recognised as « the one who doesn’t want
attention »!
And the first
feedback we can
always give is
THANK YOU

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WHAT IS FEEDBACK?
Feedback is an information with a purpose made of verbal and
non verbal details. Example: performance appraisal. Feedback is
a part of a dialogue (which is not the same as two monologues)
Purpose of feedback: create a strong and healthy relationship
with the receivers and help the receivers to achieve their goals.
For example, reduce discrepancies between current attitudes/
understandings/performance and goals.
When you give feedback, ask yourself:
What will be the benefit for the receiver?

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WHAT IS FEEDBACK?
It’s a powerful tool that boosts
self-reflection and improvement.
Bad feedback makes others powerless,
impotent or disappointed.
Good feedback allows to create a
collaborative environment.

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EFFECTIVE FEEDBACK
Must help to answer ALL of these 3 questions:
Remind the goals and success criteria
Attitudes, values and mindset required
to progress towards the goals
Activities to be undertaken to progress
Where are you going?
How is your mindset?
What’s the next step?
Before giving any feedback, ask yourself: What’s my inner driver / my intention right now?
For the receiver, of course!

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ARE THESE SENTENCES EFFECTIVE FEEDBACK?
➤ You are very good
➤ Great job!
➤ You made a mistake
➤ Awesome effort
➤ I like to work with you
➤ You help us a lot
All are important for the good relationships in a
team. It is crucial to have an ongoing supportive
communication but none of them are effective
feedback.
Take just one minute and answer the question :
What’s missing? How could you improve the sentences?

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You are right, you are wrong
TRUE-FALSE FEEDBACK
Think about it. The last time someone told you
you were wrong, did it really help? Sometimes
yes, sometimes no. It’s not an effective feedback
by itself. It depends on the context. If it has to
be improved, keep in mind these 3 questions:
➤ why is it right or wrong?
➤ what attitudes or mindset drive the
receiver to that situation?
➤ what can (s)he do next?

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EFFECTIVE FEEDBACK
➤ Supports self-assessment skills: it helps the receiver to see by him/
herself what’s right or what needs to be improved. It helps to build an
inner process to get better next time.
➤ Is solution-focused
➤ Asks questions like: what can you do differently to get a better
outcome? What's working? Where are you stuck? What will you do
differently in the future?
➤ Reinforces self-awareness
Bad Good Helpful
Criticism
Fault-finding
Compliment Feedback

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POOR FEEDBACK
• Too many information
• Talking too much (the receiver looses track)
• Not focused on the goals
• Not clear, not contextual
• Based on your own fear or anger
• Not supportive
• Not giving time to the receiver to digest
• Rewarding the performance or the results instead of the
efforts or the process
• Judging (even positively)
• Ask to do more effort without checking the strategies
behind

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THE POOREST FEEDBACK
➤ "Don’t take it personally"
➤ "No comment"
➤ "Be more proactive » and all « be more …. "
➤ "You are always … you never …. "
➤ All your body language attitudes that are seen
as unsupportive
➤ "You are wrong. Full stop"
What are the benefits of proving that someone is wrong?
It is far more productive to help people be right.
When you are driven by the need to prove that someone fails you are
pushed by your ego, you are ego-centered, and the price for it is
weaker relationships, and with time, a poor collective intelligence.

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WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT ATTITUDE?
Before giving any feedback:
1. LISTEN and OBSERVE carefully
2. Does each member of your team (really) know that you
support them and that you want them to grow and to be
successful?
3. Create a field of trust
4. Ask: May I give you some feedback?
Don’t deliver any feedback until you
can honestly say you’re ready to give
it as an ally

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WHAT IS FEEDFORWARD?
➤ Feedforward is about forgetting the past and focusing on the future
(forward).
➤ It is possible when the field of trust has been built.
➤ Judgement and criticism are excluded.
➤ It is done when someone asks for input.
➤ The main focus: helping others!

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WHAT IS FEEDFORWARD?
Could we mix
FEEDBACK and FEEDFORWARD
at the same time?
Let's talk about the answer
during the upcoming training!
:-)

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FEEDBACK @ THE INTERNET AGE
« (…) we all suffer from attention deficit disorder, and it's in part
attributable to the kind of exposure we have to digital devices. (…)
"The kind of feedback that we get from them is immediate feedback
and it's highly reinforcing, so it becomes like a drug. And in fact, it
co-opts the same brain systems that are indicated in addiction."
Richard Davidson
Professor of psychology & psychiatry @ University of Wisconsin-Madison
Oct 2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/03/neuroscientist-richard-da_n_5923648.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063

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HOW TO RECEIVE FEEDBACK?
Are you ready to receive feedback from your peers, your manager
or even from your subordinates?
Do you give them a chance to give you feedback?
How do you receive
- compliments?
- criticisms?
- suggestions of improvement?
Life is about a right balance between giving and receiving
F
E
E
D
B
A
C
K
Feedback, even the poor one, can
be considered as a gift.

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SELF-FEEDBACK, SELF-RECOGNITION
Don’t (always) count on others to tell you, you did a good job
At the end of each day take a few minutes for your own debriefing: what
went well (note that we often focus first on what goes wrong) and what
needs to be improved. Do it objectively without judging yourself.
We don’t have to be perfect. Because we know that there is only one
important thing in life: Becoming a better human being every day!
I did it well !

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TEST
➤ What is feedback?
➤ What is an effective feedback?
➤ What is the most important attitude before
giving any feedback?
Try to answer the questions below without looking at the
previous slides.

20. © COHERENCE.life
You are now ready to attend the
workshop. It could be that this short
introduction raises more questions in your
mind. That's fine. We'd love to hear them
and answer together.
THANK YOU

21. FEEDBACK, FEEDFORWARD & RECOGNITION
This introduction to the training-workshop
has been brought to you by
www.coherence.life

22. FEEDBACK, FEEDFORWARD & RECOGNITION
www.coherence.life
Tools of the positive leader
Author: Frédéric Theismann
Contributors: Brigitte Annet Alexia Dorczynski
Jacques Bouvy Corinne Diebold Fiora Theismann
For a complete workshop on this topic, contact us at hello@coherence.life
Credit
Theme: Apple Keynote standard theme
Drawings: Patti Dobrowolski and Fiora Theismann
Illustration & Pictures: Pixabay and Shutterstock
Sources: This document has been built on our own
experiences, experiments and also thanks to the contribution of
many authors, researchers and leaders over the world. We
can’t cite all of them but we are grateful for their learnings.

23. www.coherence.life
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