Lesson 4: Do's and Don'ts for Addressing Underperformance | Adam Grant

Reframe feedback as advice. Avoid overgeneralizing behaviors and failures.

Timing is everything, especially when it comes to giving feedback. If constructive criticism is delivered weeks or months after the fact, it can hit more negatively — like a surprise final verdict. But if it’s delivered in the moment, according to organizational psychologist Adam Grant, it can be heard as coaching or advice for how the receiver can adjust accordingly moving forward.

In this video lesson, Grant discusses the timing of feedback and offers other helpful do’s and don’ts to consider when providing it to your direct reports.

DON’T wait | If feedback in a performance review comes as a surprise to your direct report, you’ve failed at leadership. You’ve failed to give input in real time, so that the person can learn, adapt, and make an effort to improve.

DO reconsider your framing:

Feedback is backward-looking. It tends to focus on wrongdoing and can feel threatening to the recipient.

Advice, on the other hand, is forward-looking. Try saying: In order to realize your potential, here are 3 things I’d love to see you change.

“Advice” framing feels more actionable. It suggests that you see the person’s potential and believe they’re capable of reaching it. Get comfortable delivering these messages early and often.

DON’T overgeneralize | Saying you always or you never can make someone feel misunderstood. It can put people on the defensive and lead them to disengage. They may question whether improvement will be recognized at all.

DO try to help people see their behavior patterns. Say something like:

I’ve noticed this behavior 2 or 3 times ...

I wanted to make sure you were aware of it and give you a few tips on how to improve it …

I think there’s a great opportunity for development here. Is that something you’re interested in hearing?

The goal is to get people’s buy-in. Try to maintain the hope that change is possible — and that you’ll recognize and reward their efforts.

DON’T treat all failures the same | When coaching someone through a failure:

DO emphasize that the act of failure doesn’t make the person a failure.

DO be sure to analyze the situational and interpersonal factors that may have contributed to it.

DO differentiate between the two types of failure.

Dumb failures involve a bad outcome and a bad decision-making process. The goal is to not repeat them.

Smart failures involve a bad outcome, despite a good decision-making process. The goal is to create a mechanism for learning.

It’s not enough to hold people accountable for good outcomes; make sure they’re assessing their processes along the way. A good process is a leading indicator of good outcomes.

© Freethink Media Inc., All Rights Reserved.

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About Adam Grant:

Adam Grant has been Wharton’s top-rated professor for seven straight years. As an organizational psychologist, he is a leading expert on how we can find motivation and meaning, rethink assumptions, and live more generous and creative lives. He has been recognized as one of the world’s 10 most influential management thinkers and Fortune’s 40 under 40.

Grant is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of five books that have sold millions of copies and been translated into 45 languages: Think Again, Give and Take, Originals, Option B, and Power Moves. His books have been named among the year’s best by Amazon, Apple, the Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal. His viral piece on languishing was the most-read New York Times article of 2021 and the most-saved article across all platforms.

Grant hosts WorkLife, a chart-topping TED original podcast. His speaking and consulting clients include Google, the NBA, Bridgewater, and the Gates Foundation. He writes on work and psychology for The New York Times, has served on the Defense Innovation Board at the Pentagon, has been honored as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and has appeared on Billions. He has more than 6 million followers on social media and features new insights in GRANTED, his free monthly newsletter.