Relational Feedback Why Feedback Fails and How to Make It Meaningful

People are increasingly disenchanted with performance improvement techniques that fail to deliver. This book offers a new and refreshing way of engaging in authentic feedback that is willingly given and well-received. It demonstrates that focusing on the quality of relationship improves the activity of feedback.

The Relational Leadership WAY© that is the core of this book was created from a thematic analysis of a doctoral research study. The framework encourages effective relationships and works through perfecting a ?way of being? that is generative and productive in interactions with others; especially in feedback conversations, whether we are the giver or the receiver. The 10 themes integral to the framework are organised into 3 parts that relate to pivotal points in a conversation and that when given focused attention will improve relationships:

1. What needs preparing to establish relationships that stimulate constructive conversations
2. Active engagement in co-creating generative conversations through adopting relational behaviours

3. You both noticing and reacting to what emerges and impacts on sustaining the quality of the relationship.

This book will appeal to those seeking an innovative approach to performance management and who welcome a reprieve from the relentless pursuit of a universal feedback tool. It is essential reading for:

• Business managers and leaders expected to motivate teams to become high performing work units
• Organisational and independent coaches, mentors and practice supervisors developing trust by building effective relationships that encourage disclosure through engaging and authentic feedback
• Managers, leaders, HR and OD specialists to use as a business text for performance management programmes
• Training organisations to use as a core text for delegates.

Acknowledgements, Foreword, Author Foreword, Introduction, 1 What perceptions exist about Feedback, Definitions of Feedback, Willingness to engage in Feedback – the psychological perspective, The Effectiveness of Feedback – for both the giver and receiver, 2 Why Feedback and Whose Responsibility is it? The business case for Feedback, The leader | manager’s perspective, The people professional’s perspective, The team’s perspective, The coaching | mentoring practitioner’s perspective, The individual employee’s perspective, 3 Current practices in Feedback Exchange, Business performance improvement tools: appraisal systems, competence frameworks and self-assessment, Proprietary tools: Psychometrics, Popular feedback techniques, 4 The Importance of Relationship and How it Influences Engagement in Feedback, The importance of ‘being relational’, Types of relationship and how these impact on our view of Feedback, The dynamics impacting on relationship, Power in relationships, The cultural perspective, The common features of productive relationships, Creating productive relationships, 5 Part ONE of The WAY Relational Framework©: WHAT needs preparing to establish relationships that stimulate constructive conversations:, Theme 1: Self-Management: emotional state, level of confidence and compassion, Theme 2: Readiness for Feedback: assessing receptivity and potential reaction to feedback, 6 Part TWO of The WAY Relational Framework©: ACTIVE engagement in co-creating generative conversations through adopting relational behaviours: Theme 3: Objectivity: conscious bias, unconscious bias, Theme 4: Mindfulness, Theme 5: Presence: flow and breaking flow, Theme 6: Timing of Feedback, 7 Part THREE of The WAY Relational Framework©: YOU both noticing and reacting to what emerges and impacts on sustaining the quality of the relationship, Theme 7: Physicality, Theme 8: Emotional State, Theme 9: Intuition, Theme 10: Metaphysical, 8 How Artificial Intelligence (AI) may impact on the future of Feedback, Bibliography, Index

Lise Lewis is the founder of Bluesky International and an EMCC Global Special Ambassador. She is also an EIA Master Coach, ESIA Coach Supervisor, provider of global coach and coach supervisor training virtually and in organisations, as well as a researcher and author contributing to Coaching Supervision: Advancing Practice, Changing Landscapes and ‘CIPD Coaching Toolkit’.