Weekly Business Insights from Top Ten Business Magazines | Week 303 | Leading & Managing | 2

Extractive summaries and key takeaways from the articles curated from TOP TEN BUSINESS MAGAZINES to promote informed business decision-making | Week 303 | June 30 – July 6, 2023.

What Business Leaders Can Learn From Teachers About Giving Truly Effective Feedback

By Jessica Stillman | Inc Magazine | July 4, 2023

Listen to the Extractive Summary of the Article

Evidence — including research and the testimony of management experts — suggests that despite a wealth of advice out there on the subject, many leaders still struggle to balance skill-improving constructive criticism with the need to motivate and maintain positive relationships.

Where should leaders look for help with this unnatural but essential skill? Perhaps to another group of professionals whose whole job revolves around cheering people on while also telling them how to do better — teachers. 

A new study out of Stanford and Sonoma State University examines how educators provide feedback to students. The researchers also asked students to rate how they would respond to various types of feedback. Which style of teacher feedback did the study find had the most benefits? An approach called “agentic feedback.” In this type of feedback, the teacher doesn’t merely point out the wrong answer and provide the correct one, but directs the student to look again at the parts of their work where there is room for improvement. 

“Correcting spelling errors is not agentic feedback. Telling a student that they need to reread the piece because there are multiple spelling errors throughout is agentic feedback. As another illustration, rewriting a student’s topic and transition sentences throughout an essay is not agentic. But crafting a note like ‘A topic sentence should signal what the paragraph is about. Can you try reworking this sentence to reflect the paragraph?’  Students told the researchers this type of feedback gave them choice and made them think, which they enjoyed despite the extra effort.  It also signals to kids who are less confident in their abilities that the teacher believes in their potential and thinks they have the skills to do better.  Communicating that you believe in someone’s ability to grow is a proven way to promote their growth.  The researchers note that this same approach to feedback can be equally effective in a business context.  

People want to feel like someone believes in them and is there to support them. Agentic feedback provides one way to achieve both goals.  “The key to providing this feedback is to think about the questions you can raise rather than issuing direct corrections or prescriptions. It’s the difference between telling someone how they should do it and asking, ‘How could you approach this issue differently in the future?'”

3 key takeaways from the article

1. Evidence suggests that despite a wealth of advice out there on the subject, many leaders still struggle to balance skill-improving constructive criticism with the need to motivate and maintain positive relationships.  Where should leaders look for help with this unnatural but essential skill? — teachers. 
2. An approach called “agentic feedback” in which the teacher doesn’t merely point out the wrong answer and provide the correct one, but directs the student to look again at the parts of their work where there is room for improvement. 
3. This same approach to feedback can be equally effective in a business context.  The key to providing this feedback is to think about the questions you can raise rather than issuing direct corrections or prescriptions. It’s the difference between telling someone how they should do it and asking, ‘How could you approach this issue differently in the future?’

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Topics:  Leadership, Feedback, Communication