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A friend, let’s call her Annie, called me recently to discuss some challenging feedback she’d received from her manager, let’s call him Jason. She walked away from the conversation confused and completely disheartened. Annie was wondering what, if anything, she could or should do with this feedback. What she wanted to do was tell Jason to take a long walk off a short pier, however she was conscious that doing so would be career limiting!
There were a number of issues with the feedback. Firstly it lacked details, probably because Jason was raising issues that were not his, but another managers. He hadn’t cared enough or didn’t think it important enough to get specific detail. Secondly, when Annie asked questions to better understand the issue of what or how she could do things better next time, Jason was unable to offer any suggestions, other than speak to the other manager. The same manager who didn’t want to have the conversation in the first place! So what was the point of Jason giving Annie the feedback in this instance, other than to say he’d done it? Clearly he didn’t seem interested in backing up his employee, who he previously had only ever given positive feedback.
