Feedback for Happiness

Reading the weekend newspaper, as I sometimes get time to do, earlier today.   I came across a great interview with Dr Martin Seligman whose work  I have followed at  Authentic Happiness.

Otherwise known as the happiness professor his mission has been the promotion of the field of Positive Psychology. This discipline includes the study of positive emotion and positive character traits.

His work and teachings are little talked about in business in the UK, but they should be.   Delivering feedback is an undervalued skill in business and I could write endless posts on the subject, but what follows is what Dr Seligman calls an “action exercise”. 

Try this the next time that you are in a position to give feedback.

You start with four options:

1. Active
2. Passive
3. Constructive
4. Destructive

There are also combinations of the above;  most balanced peoples’ default is Passive Constructive.  So let’s take an extreme scenario to demonstrate his point:

One of your sales team comes back to the office and tells you that she has landed to biggest deal in the company’s history and you say:

“Congratulations Amanda you really deserve it.”  (Passive Constructive.)  You could also say, “You do know that it will be very difficult for the business to service that order.”  (Active Destructive.)  Or you could try, “Have you got those sales figures that were due in at the begining of the month?”  (Passive Destructive.)

But of course the one that will work best is Active Constructive, “That’s fantastic Amanda, I have been keeping an eye on your presentation stats and your proposals over the past few months and the one you put together for this deal is the most considered and detailed I have seen.  Would you talk me through the pitch?  Who was there?  Did they accept all of your recommendations?…”  Suddenly your feedback also becomes a celebration, an eductaion, it becomes memorable.  ( NB Ensure that your feedback is authentic and delivered with candor.)

The more people in your organisation that you can get delivering Active Constructive feedback the more commitment you will get all round, the more success and the more people will want to work for you.

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