We all deceive ourselves about something. And mostly it’s harmless.

You know how it goes. My rear doesn’t look big in this. I don’t drink too much. I’m pretty fit.

But sometimes it’s harmful. I see this from time to time with frontline managers.

The other morning after a workout I was chatting with a fellow gym member and she asked me what line of work I was in. I told her that I’m a Frontline Leadership Specialist and that my business creates significant and sustainable performance improvement for organisations by enhancing the leadership practices of their frontline managers.

That got her interest, so she asked me for a couple of tips as she and her husband ran their own business. I mentioned to her that I’ve noticed that all high performing frontline managers have a strategy, or system, to provide frequent positive feedback to their people. She replied that she and her husband did ‘that sort of thing’ already. As the Tui beer billboard says, “Yeah right”.

How could I be so dismissive you may ask? For three reasons:

Reason 1
I’ve had the chance to profile many high performing frontline managers. None of them would say, “I do that sort of thing.” All of them can describe, very clearly and specifically, their system to motivate their people to perform to their best. High performing managers do not talk in generalities on this topic. Instead, top of mind they can describe the exact things they consciously do every day to maximise the performance of their people. After some probing, it became apparent that my fellow gym member had no system to deliver frequent positive feedback to her employees. She was just kidding herself.

Reason 2
This issue was highlighted for me many years ago by a piece of research I stumbled across. One of the manager behaviours included in the research was, “Gives sincere and thorough praise.” Of the managers surveyed, 80% of them said that they gave sincere and thorough praise ‘very often’. Interestingly, only 14% of employees surveyed said that they received sincere and thorough praise ‘very often’. This is not just a small difference in perception. Unfortunately, it’s our employee’s perception to which we have to pay attention, since that affects their level of motivation and subsequent performance. What this research suggests is that managers kid themselves.

Reason 3
There are a number of reasons why there can be such a wide gap in perception between managers and their employees on this issue. One of them is a lack of feedback.

We can’t learn without feedback. Without knowing when we’re on-track, and when we are off-track, we can’t improve. So, if the use of frequent, informal, specific and immediate positive feedback is the single most effective driver of employee performance (which it is according to the Corporate Leadership Council) then the lack of feedback on this critical activity is likely to cause some problems. Particularly when lack of feedback is a major factor in nearly all problems of low performance.

A practical example was presented to me shortly after reading the research I mentioned. I was working with the branches of a retail bank. Having completed the training phase of the project, I was visiting each branch to undertake on-job coaching with the Branch Managers.

At one of the branches I happened to ask how much positive feedback was being provided to the staff. The Manager enthused over the high quantity of positive feedback he believed he was dispensing. But he had no evidence to back up his belief. So I sketched out a diagram on the back of a business card as to how I wanted him to track the amount of positive feedback he was providing to his people over the coming week.

The next week we had a catch-up by telephone. I discovered that the Manager involved, having tracked his own performance over the week, was shocked by just how little positive feedback he actually provided to his people. It turned out that he’d just been kidding himself.

In the absence of feedback we often think we’re doing well. The sad reality is that for frontline managers this is frequently not the case. And this can be very harmful. The day-to-day activities of frontline managers are the major factor in driving employee motivation, productivity and performance. A failure to consistently perform key leadership activities has a significant, negative, knock-on effect on frontline teams.

Photo courtesy of admagnet