The Solution – Feedback and the Competency Working Together

In desperation, the HR Director of the company sought some outside help from Learning Partners.  Liz used the Feedback Model from the Development Guide.  She started by asking Tom what he did well and giving him some feedback about what he did well.  Tom began to feel more confident and calm when he reflected on the successes of the past year. When she asked Tom the next question, ‘What could you do differently?’ Tom immediately talked about the problems he was facing getting people to cooperate and focus on delivering an excellent customer service.  Tom realised he was losing control of himself and wanted to change the situation, he just didn’t know what to do about it.

Liz used the Performance Toolkit Competency Cards to help Tom decide what he wanted to aim for.  He chose the Competency Working Together at Level 3 as his target for development.

 

Using the Competency Card Tom quickly selected the Target Behaviours and put them in his Development Plan as his Success Criteria.  Setting targets and criteria made absolute sense to him – this was what he did all day in his job after all!

Using the Development Guide, Tom selected the appropriate Development Actions, (see below) and decided he was going to start straight away.  He liked the Feedback Model because it enabled him to get to the heart of the problem quickly, without feeling judged or disrespected.  He printed it out from the Development Guide.

 

Target Level 1 and Behaviours	Development Actions Level 1
Recognising Others Involves people appropriately, shares ideas and keeps others up to date with information that affects them. Praises and thanks others for their success, contribution and efforts; accepts responsibility for own mistakes, and when others make mistakes tries to help or learn rather than blame.	Recognising Others Ensure you understand the role of each person in your team and the value they add.  Observe, respect and use the contribution others make to the team and the roles that they prefer (TEAMS: Team Roles).  In discussions, seek points of agreement with others, making an effort to point out the similarities, not just the differences. Make a point of thanking people for their contribution.  Offer to help others when mistakes are made and ask for help yourself (DEVELOPING SELF & OTHERS: Coaching Cycle).
Target Level 3 and Behaviours	Development Actions Level 3
Co-operating Understands what motivates different groups, makes others aware of their needs and encourages them to meet those needs creating collaborative, win-win business goals between different parts of the organisation.	Co-operating Acquire an understanding of team evolution and individual roles by recording what the group does (TEAMS: Stages of Team Development Team Roles). Identify what motivates a person and use that to gain their agreement and enthusiasm for a task (UNDERSTANDING & MOTIVATING: Values - Understanding Motivation).

The Outcome

Tom started to give praise and feedback and as a result the Production Manager Anne felt more confident and was able to approach him to clarify the requirements for the new Product launch; an expensive investment for the company.  Although Tom discovered some mistakes, instead of blaming Anne Tom told her what he liked about what she had done and what he would like done differently.  This conversation saved £2,500 in brochure printing costs.

Tom’s direct reports noticed the change very quickly and soon enough Tom had organised a meeting between the departments to agree improvements in how they worked together.  Tom led the meeting and used the Feedback Model as the structure.  As a result, the groups kept what worked well and agreed changes to increase efficiency, reduce mistakes, and set up a process for problem solving together.  After the meeting, people stopped blaming other departments, started to cooperate, and the improved business process led to more efficient handling of customer enquiries, sales and more timely and accurate deliveries.