Feedback given and accepted in good faith at work benefits all parties

Giving candid critiques is ­essential to solving problems in any workplace and should be encouraged at all levels.

It takes finesse to tell your boss and colleagues what you really think.

Terra Kunish was wary when a new chief executive ­arrived at her company last year preaching candour among managers and staff. Phil Dolci says he promotes honest feedback at Stow Co, a Michigan, US-based maker of home-storage products. “You can have a very difficult conversation with someone and still be compassionate,” the chief executive says.

Kunish, a product manager, waited a few weeks to watch Dolci in action. “I needed to know he wouldn’t throw me under the bus” for offering criticisms, she says. He didn’t. She challenged Dolci ­directly after he nixed her proposal during an executive meeting to ­include a drill bit with one of the company’s shelving products. She asked to see him in his ­office after the meeting and made her case again, citing customer data.

Dolci says he saw that she was right but didn’t agree immediately. “I pushed back and she stood her ground,” he says. He has since promoted her twice, to brand director. “It’s important to me that employees have the courage to disagree with me.”

Giving candid critiques is ­essential to solving problems on the job. It’s an especially hot topic at tech companies, with their flattened hierarchies and ceaseless time pressure. Staff may care deeply about team ­results and ­depend on their colleagues to do well but hesitate to criticise them for fear of sparking conflict, hurting feelings or being seen as a jerk.

Airing disagreements face-to-face prods managers and staff to examine their assumptions and make better decisions, says ­Michael Roberto, a management professor at Bryant University. “You have to remember you’re on the same team and you’re trying to strengthen each other’s argument — not win the argument,” he says.

Asking permission before ­offering feedback can be helpful, says Achim Nowak, a Hollywood executive coach. “Instead of pouncing on the person, say, ‘I have a couple of thoughts I’d like to share with you. Is this a good time?’ ” Prefacing your remarks with “I’m sure you’ve thought about this already” can lend ­humility, Nowak says.

Bosses who want honest feedback often have to ask for it, welcome it warmly and listen carefully even when they disagree, says Kim Scott. She is the author of Radical Candor, a bestseller about how to give honest feedback at work.

Art Karoubas, vice-president of product at HighGround, a Chicago maker of employee-engagement software, asks staff every three months how he can be a better manager. He listens when they challenge his plans. “Even if I’m 100 per cent convinced that my idea is the best idea, I open it up and ask, ‘What do you think?’ ” he says. Then he follows up with questions.

He listened recently to an ­employee who objected, saying the team was planning to roll out a new software feature too fast. That started a conversation on his team about a broader change the ­employee thought was needed to improve the product, Karoubas says. They released the new feature on time but laid longer-term plans to make the additional, broader fix.

Akhila Tadinada, a director for Hitachi Vantara, says she invites staff to challenge everything. She was reluctant to back an engineer’s recent proposal to build an online marketplace for the company’s industrial applications, saying customers would not be interested. The engineer argued that it could be a helpful innovation. Although she was still sceptical, she gave him time to build a prototype and test it. The com­pleted product was a big hit with executives at a recent customer conference.

Avoid turning criticism into a personal attack, Scott says. She recommends following a “situation, behaviour, impact” formula: Describe the situation where the problem behaviour occurred, the person’s specific actions and their impact. Instead of saying “You’re sloppy”, say: “You’ve been working nights and weekends and it’s starting to take a toll on your ability to catch mistakes in your logic.”

WALL STREET JOURNAL