With appraisals looming this opening paragraph in a Management Today article ‘Death of the Bollocking’ got me thinking about whether I’m brave enough to find a way to give critical feedback. I worry about whether I’ve become too soft, too worried about being too harsh, about de-motivating staff, about making sure any critical feedback is offered in a praise sandwich. I’ve had it drummed into me for years that praise is the thing we don’t do well, that we need to do better. 

“You need to tell people where they stand,” says Deborah Meaden, entrepreneur and Dragons’ Den dragon. “If someone’s done a good job, you should tell them they’ve done damn well. But if they haven’t, you should take the same attitude. Tell them: ‘That wasn’t good enough.’ It creates an environment where everyone understands where they are.” One of the dangers of not pulling people up when they underperform, she adds, is that they’re genuinely surprised when things don’t turn out well for them, or the project they’re working on isn’t a success.

It’s so unusual for leaders to speak out about what’s wrong. Zenna Atkins, a recent speaker on the Common Purpose Masterclass on Leading Beyond Authority, was recently quoted in an Observer article giving a critical report on the civil service:

“A damning assessment of the civil service as a ‘desperately overpopulated’, ‘broken’ institution which is stuck in the 19th century has been made by one of its most prominent figures. In an astonishing attack, Zenna Atkins, a director of the Royal Navy Fleet Executive Board, chair of its audit committee and also chair of Ofsted, the schools inspectorate, described the practices of central government as ‘utterly antiquated’. ‘I could say without doubt that significant parts of the civil service are broken,’ she told The Observer. ‘The machinery of government is not even in the 20th century, never mind the 21st century.’”

Does that mean she doesn’t care, or doesn’t think the civil service is doing a good job in many areas? I doubt it - would she spend so much of her time dedicated to working with it otherwise? Maybe we need more leaders like this. But as the Management Today article points out it’s harder for these people to operate in this way if those of us who are parents, teachers, managers don’t show our own leadership and practice being bold, speaking up and giving critical feedback. I’m sure it doesn’t mean we need to kick boots at people, or get the proverbial hairdryer out, just remember that we want things to improve

So what will I do differently? Try and notice when I’m cushioning every piece of negative feedback, make a few attempts to deliver only critical feedback (after so many years of offering the praise sandwich). How will it go? I’ve no idea, but I know I need to try and to learn, if I don’t I’m not being fair to anyone.

Oliver Mack