Feedback: A consultant's key to achieving high performance

Because when you are in a profession where your knowledge, skills, and—essentially—your time are the primary benefits, the above are examples of key figures that can indicate how you perform and which make it easy to compare your business with that of your competitors.

[Also read: Download the world's most significant benchmark of the consulting industry: +150 key figures, +200 pages and 15 years of experience.]

At least on the surface.

As most people who are used to reporting and working with key figures know, the numbers are like the tip of an iceberg.

They say something, but they don't provide much context.

If we stay with the iceberg analogy, below what you can see on top, you have elements such as processes, culture, technology, strategy, etc.

And when you want to influence what's on top, you must dive down to the bottom.

With a tool like TimeLog PSA, you can control personnel and salary administration, working hours, tasks and projects. In our reports, it is easy to find critical figures such as invoicing rate and more. 

But I'm guessing that you - like me - are just as interested in what it takes to influence those numbers.

In this article, I dive into one of the elements that I have experienced can help move the numbers to the top.

Feedback.

You can only improve as a manager if you receive feedback from your employees, colleagues or customers. And I can only become a better employee if you, as a manager, give me feedback.”

Lise Bartell

Management consultant and author

Tune into the podcast Hit the Ground Running (in Danish), where we focus on feedback as a management tool:

And Lise Bartell is not alone in viewing feedback as an essential component of leadership.

A study from Harvard Business Review reveals that 72% of participants believe their performance could improve if their leaders provided more feedback.

If you experience a racing heart and sweaty palms when giving feedback to an employee or colleague, perhaps it's time to embrace a new mindset.

Should we consider feedback or feedforward?

Research also indicates that difficulty giving feedback often leads to procrastination, which is unfortunate since feedback timing is crucial for effectiveness.

Viewing feedback as a gift is further supported by another study from Gallup, which explores how three types of feedback affect employee engagement:

• No feedback (i.e., the employee receives no feedback).
• Feedback that focuses on strengths.
• Feedback that focuses on weaknesses (critical feedback).

The study reveals that no feedback is worse than critical feedback, while feedback that concentrates on strengths significantly impacts engagement and motivation.

Thus, of the approximately 25% categorised as "ignored"—those who do not receive feedback from their managers—only 2% are engaged in their work. In contrast, more than half of those who receive feedback focused on strengths and 45% of those receiving feedback on weaknesses are engaged.

Therefore, no news is not good news, and if leaders primarily concentrate on what is not working, they can gain by shifting focus and building on employees' strengths instead.

Feedback as a Pit Stop 

"In a company, we function like an organism, interacting in a complex system where we influence each other emotionally. This requires approaching feedback with a positive mindset and the readiness to pause and adjust as needed," explains Lise.

"Danish Handball coach Nikolaj Jacobsen often calls a timeout—a pit stop—during a game. We should adopt a similar practice in our workplaces. If something in a project isn't working, we shouldn't wait until it's delivered to the client. Instead, we take a pit stop along the way and say, 'Hey Morten, I'd like to give you feedback on x, y, z—is now a good time?'" Lise elaborates.

Feedback as a dialogue

Adopting a positive mindset when providing feedback can help ease tensions. Think of feedback as a conversation where you and your employee, boss, or colleague collaboratively explore what might need to change moving forward.

[Listen to the podcast on feedback on Spotify and learn more about Lise Bartell's feedback model in Danish]

Feedback models

If you're interested in exploring a feedback model that emphasises dialogue more than traditional models like STAR, CEDAR, and SBI, consider TimeLog's newly developed feedback model.

As mentioned earlier, this model was created based on our experiments with the models, and our marketing department has creatively named it C LÉS QO.

• Context: explain the situation and the context of your feedback – be specific! (e.g. "I'd like to give you feedback on x, which I experienced as y") 
• L.O.T. (line of thought): The feedback receiver addresses the context and examples, and explains their line of thought.
• Éxamples of impact: The feedback-giver describes the impact of the behaviour on them, the team, a client, etc. Be specific and give examples. 
• Suggestions: both come up with suggestions for improvement  
• Q&A (questions and acknowledgements): the feedback-receiver can ask questions about the suggestions and acknowledge whether they agree/disagree  
• Outcome: both parties align on the outcome and next steps  

We are still testing and adjusting the model, but you are welcome to draw inspiration from our journey through the intricate feedback paths.

I am quite serious about testing and navigating these complex paths. Integrating a feedback process into a company's operations takes persistence. Fortunately, one of the advantages of using a structured model is that it simplifies the implementation process.

"When I assist companies in integrating feedback as a regular part of their work culture, I recommend that they print out their feedback model. It's similar to teaching our children to ride a bike – starting with training wheels is okay. Similarly, it can be helpful to say, 'Let's talk about feedback; I've brought the model, and we'll start here...'," explains Lise.

[Listen to all podcast episodes of Hit the Ground Running]