Giving and receiving feedback can be like listening to Metallica’s collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony: a little awkward at first, but once you give it a chance, you start to enjoy it.

Unfortunately, feedback in the workplace is still not something people look forward to. According to one survey, 69% of managers are uncomfortable communicating with employees, with many managers saying they don’t feel confident providing direct feedback because they “fear hurting employees’ feelings, and are worried about adverse reactions, breeding antagonism, and resentment.” As a result, feedback is held back for far too long.

THE #1 LESSON FROM 78 LEADERSHIP 360 REVIEWS

Last year, I conducted nearly 80 1:1 reviews with leaders from a well-established, innovative organization. Each leader received a detailed report that included ratings from their peers and leaders on several core competencies and commentary to give each leader an idea of what they were good at and where they could improve. It was a great initiative and the managers reveled in it.

Do you know what people asked me when reviewing competencies? “Hmmm, so I wonder what better looks like. What do they need to see to show them I am improving?”

It’s a great question. You don’t always know what you don’t know. The reality is feedback is based on actions from the past (or “back” in time), which is good to help identify what went well and what didn’t.

However, feedback is missing a pivotal piece of information: What does better look like in the future?

This is where feedforward comes in.

FEEDFORWARD IS THE NEW FRONTIER

Feedforward is an extremely productive way to give your team members a vision of desirable future behaviors with a clear and tangible understanding of what better looks like. Feedforward allows both parties in the conversation to align on what better looks like, and it’s really easy for both parties to do.

Step 1: Choose your development areas.

Where do you want or need to improve? A 360 review report with feed”back” from key stakeholders (colleagues, a manager, a 2-up manager, direct reports and key stakeholders) can be precious to help hone in on where to improve. Choose three areas to improve on and present them to your manager. If 360 reports are not an option, chat with your manager and agree on what areas you could focus on.

Step 2: Choose who you want to receive feedforward from.

Pick three people to give you feedforward. Given your leader is most likely the one who will evaluate your performance, it’s critical to include them in this process. Choose people with whom you interact highly with you and those who will be honest—and not just nice. Choosing a challenging stakeholder is a great way to improve your relationship and learn a new approach that generally wouldn’t be your natural way of doing things.

Step 3 Begin the process.

Set up a 30-minute meeting with each person you’d like feedforward from, and ask these three simple yet powerful questions. These three questions will put your partner in a solid position to provide valuable and practical responses.

“If I were better at <the area I want to improve in>,  what would you see me doing differently than I’m doing now? What would you hear me talking about? What would others tell you I was doing differently?”

“What else?”

“What advice do you have for me to improve?”

Note: These questions can either be provided before the feedforward session or on the spot, depending on the preference of the individual giving the feedforward.

Go into these discussions to get as much information as possible. Resist the urge to say, “I already do it that” or “I disagree.” Open-ended follow-up questions are your best friend at this stage. “What else?” and “Tell me more about that” will give you valuable information.

At the end of the feedforward process, thank them and ask if it’s okay for you to follow up in six weeks to gauge progress. This gives you plenty of time to apply the learnings and allows you to see if they have noticed anything different, to course correct if need be, and reinforce your commitment to improving.

Feedback works for knowing what to improve on. Feedforward helps clarify what better looks like, leading to higher levels of confidence and conviction. When giving both, your people will grow quicker. In both situations, it makes feedback discussions more comfortable and easier. Who knows, it may bring music to your ears: even Metallica and the symphony.