Bad Boss Blog Series: Feedback

Feedback is one of the most important elements in our relationship with a boss. Feedback is really just information (usually in response to something) shared between people. But for lots of reasons, the way they handle feedback can be one of the major signs of a bad boss. Feedback asks us to change. It looks at actions, outputs or behaviours in the past and responds to them. Good feedback will be focused on the future. But bad bosses don’t always give good feedback.

Bad feedback can begin with unhelpful power plays or aggressive dynamics. It can wander off track, losing focus. Or it can focus in the wrong areas. Bad feedback heightens the emotions at play or ignores them completely. It exacerbates the negative aspects of interpersonal dynamics. It breaks the bonds of accountability. It encourages us to create and shift blame. It distorts our version of our self and our understanding of reality. It might reinforce doubts, playing on insecurities and making effort seem worthless. Bad feedback is dangerous.

Over the next few weeks the Bad Boss Blog Series will focus on feedback — with the first post arriving tomorrow. I’ll be writing about some of the mistakes bad bosses make when they approach feedback conversations and how we can manage our response and help get the information we need to improve. And I might only post the next in the series once I get some feedback on the previous post — because feedback is a gift :-)