The difference between an effective and ineffective manager in addressing poor performance and holding people accountable is the ability to look right through the smoke screen to the root cause of the problem and to see things for what they are.

I remember my first real review, and I say real because it was the first time one of my supervisors actually took the time and invested the efforts to tell me things I did not want to hear, tell me that I was not perfect and the areas that I needed to improve and how I could do that with his help. Believe me I was able to give my boss tons of good reasons (and truly believed in them) for why I did things that way and how this was not my fault and so on… sounds familiar to you?

Well, my boss did not let go, kept pushing and went after me until I gave in. It took me a couple of days to truly understand and accept his feedback, and looking back, I will be forever thankful that he invested the energy to help me change and improve.

So what’s that smoke screen I keep talking about? Putting up a smoke screen is your attempt to change the subject (namely the counseling of you and the necessary improvement on your side) to a bunch of things that are wrong outside your control and that left you with no choice but to be the way you are (and of course you’re the victim of all that). It becomes about other people who are not doing their job, ineffective and poorly managed processes that harm your performance, and everything else that’s not perfect around you and the way it should be. Most arguments are valid, but do not have anything to do with your attitude or your need to improve. People may know that they did wrong and need to improve, and are putting up a smoke screen just because they want to continue this way, which is easy to address.

But most people truly believe in the smoke screen and their excuses which takes more efforts and energy on your part to address. It takes the ability to not get lost in the smoke and go right back to the real problem.

So how did my boss accomplish helping me change and improve my style that I thought to be great for so many years, and that no supervisor before felt needed improvement.

1. His ability to cut right through the smoke screen that I tried to build up by making excuses and pointing out flaws of other people or processes leading to my ‘opportunity for improvement’. He kept going back to the root cause of the problem, to what I had to improve in order for things to get better.
2. His stubbornness in not giving in, and believe me, I kept pushing back on his attempts for counseling as hard as I could. As the smokescreen does always include valid arguments and good reasoning, it does take a grain of stubbornness to be succesful in providing constructive feedback successfully.
3. His integrity and the respect that I had for him, as his actions would always match his words and he always made sure to be leading by example. If you have no integrity, giving feedback is destined to backfire, and people may do what you asked them to do halfheartedly, because of your position of authority, but not because they believe in you or what you are trying to tell them.

Giving constructive feedback and helping your people to grow and develop is a gift and incredibly enriching to you and your organization.

How do you feel about feedback, and what are the challenges that you came across?