Peer response 1

There were several aspects of the video that resonated with my own experiences. First, the physical setting was very familiar.  I’m hoping that thanks to the pandemic, I’ll never have to squeeze into a tiny conference room with my boss for a performance review again.  While there is something to be said for the subtle body language you can read in person that simply doesn’t translate well across zoom, I feel adjusted to remote work enough to pick up on other available cues. Secondly, the flow of the meeting loosely followed the sandwich model of feedback, where a negative is “sandwiched” between two positives. Though this model has only been partially supported as effective (Procházka, et al., 2020), it is a common model. (I’m fairly certain I learned this method in Toastmasters.)  In the video, we see this model in action. Carol starts with the positive, then introduces opportunities for learning and development, and closes with a positive comment. She allows the employee to self-direct towards the specific development they feel they need to improve the negative, but ultimately the learning and development plan will be co-created. 

At work, I’ve recently taken on a new assignment, managing a small team of vendor management professionals. I’ve been working with the team for a few months, but just became the team manager last week. This is a new situation for me, as the people I’m managing are peer level and, quite frankly, my first impression is that the team is underperforming.  I am going to have to give some tough feedback to team members individually and as a group, so I’m interested in learning more about how to provide feedback in a motivating and empowering manner. I feel this is a critical skill, as research has shown feedback to produce negative performance results in 38 percent of cases studied (Cannon & Witherspoon, 2005). Giving and receiving critical feedback can often be emotionally charged, which may interfere with the readiness of the employee to learn and develop; therefore, it is important to give specific and actionable feedback (Cannon & Witherspoon, 2005).  

Cannon, M. D., & Witherspoon, R. (2005). Actionable feedback: Unlocking the power of learning and performance improvement. Academy of Management Perspectives, 19(2), 120-134.

Procházka, J., Ovcari, M., & Durinik, M. (2020). Sandwich feedback: The empirical evidence of its effectiveness. Learning and Motivation, 71, 101649.

Peer response 2

According to Agunis (2019), regular, formal performance reviews are essential to ensure quality production and instill a sense of trust and empowerment between employer and employee.  This video is certainly relatable having worked in the corporate pharmaceutical world for over 8 years.  In big corporate pharma, regular performance reviews happen twice a year, middle and end.  One of the elements of performance reviews that stands out to me is the presentation of feedback. As employees and managers, we never really get training on how to properly give and receive feedback.  Furthermore, there is drastically less research on how to receive feedback as compared to giving it.  According to Kowalski (2017), the proper reception of feedback does not mean that the recipient necessarily agrees with said feedback but is simply accepting of it.  Proper reception of feedback involves engaging in a conversion in which in the end each participant chooses how to use the given feedback.  This element has been incredibly useful in my own performance reviews at work and in learning how best to consume and process information presented to me.

Learning about performance management and reviews as a whole will help me understand what I need and can expect from my own manager.  For example, providing specific, quantitative results and presenting me with examples are just a handful of things that managers should present to employees.  I am hoping to uncover ways employees can ask for more black and white feedback based on empirical data such as KPIs and sales quotas.  Learning more about the giving and receiving of feedback would also be useful to apply in my workplace. 

Agunis, H. (2019).  (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. ISBN: 9780132556385

Kowalski, K. (2017). Giving and Receiving Feedback: Part II. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 48(10), 445–446. https://doi.org/10.3928/00220124-20170918-04