Episode 240 - When Negative Feedback Becomes Too Much

Summary

Negative feedback can sometimes improve performance and sometimes leave people distracted, discouraged or withdrawing from their work. New research shows that how surprising, disruptive and consequential the feedback feels helps explain those different reactions. This episode looks at how leaders can make difficult feedback clearer and easier to act on.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 240 of the Leadership Today podcast, where each week we share practical tips to improve your leadership. This week we look at negative feedback and why the way someone experiences the feedback can matter just as much as what you actually say.

Most leaders know that feedback needs to be clear and specific. If something isn't working, we need to talk about it rather than hoping the problem fixes itself. But we've probably also experienced situations where feedback seems to have a much bigger impact than we expected. We raise what feels like a fairly straightforward issue and the person becomes defensive, discouraged or distracted by it for days afterwards.

New research published in Human Resource Management helps explain why. Rather than treating every piece of negative feedback as the same, the researchers looked at specific feedback events over a 10-week period. They were particularly interested in how novel, disruptive and critical the feedback felt to the employee.

By way of example, imagine telling someone they need to tighten up the formatting in a report. That's negative feedback, but it probably isn't particularly surprising or consequential. Now imagine telling someone who believes they are performing well that there are serious concerns about their overall performance. That's a very different event, even if both conversations could technically be described as negative feedback.

The research suggests these characteristics matter because feedback can affect our sense of competence and use up mental resources. If the feedback is significant enough, part of the person's attention shifts away from the work itself and towards trying to understand what has happened, what it means and what they need to do next.

For leaders, one implication is to think beyond the message you are delivering and consider how surprising it will be. If someone has been hearing nothing but positive comments for six months and then receives a major performance concern at their annual review, the novelty of that information becomes part of the problem. Regular, proportionat