Earlier this week, a close colleague and I were engaged in an enthralling conversation around feedback that some Managers choose to provide their people. During the conversation, the topic of presenting came up, and we both shared stories of sitting in presentations where the presenter was horrible – they could not clearly articulate their message,they spent the majority of their time looking at, and reading from the PowerPoint slide deck on the screen rather than engaging their audience and they presented with little or no energy. And in terms of feedback, their Manager shared with them that they thought they had done a great job! This feedback was based more on what the Manager thought the presenter wanted to hear, rather than providing feedback that the presenter needed to hear in order to grow and develop. I then shared with my colleague that I have also been guilty of this; of providing feedback that I thought would make me popular and ‘liked’, rather than taking the responsibility to deliver robust and constructive feedback which could make a difference.
This conversation prompted me to take a closer look at the difference between Leaders who focussed on doing what is ‘popular’, and those Leaders who are prepared to do what is ‘unpopular’.