Unleashing Your Remarkable Potential
Issue 8.2 - January 10, 2011 ISSN: 15516571

In Kevins Own Words

The Differences Between Feedback and Advice, and Why It Matters

Feedback and advice.

In modern organizational life they are related terms.

When you look at them grammatically, they are connected, but not as related as I thought before I researched them a bit. From Dictionary.com here are the relevant definitions for each word, and some synonyms too:

Feedback: noun - (3) a reaction or response to a particular process or activity: He got very little feedback from his speech.

Synonyms include: observation, retaliation, assessment, evaluation, criticism, sentiment and comeback.

Advice: noun - (1) an opinion or recommendation offered as a guide to action, conduct, etc.: I shall act on your advice.

Synonyms include: recommendation, encouragement, consultation, information, instruction and proposition.

And in everyday use they are definitely different.

Consider what you "know" if your colleague John says, "I need to give George some feedback." I'm guessing what you "know" is that John needs to tell George how something didn't go so well!

And if you hear John say, "I want to give George some advice," you probably are less sure exactly what the situation is. But, it might be something positive or even something George requested, right?

Feedback and advice.

In a variety of other places I have written about the importance of feedback and have talked about the need for more balanced feedback - positive and negative - that also include comments about the past as well as thoughts about the future (often called feedforward). These combinations lead to a far more useful model for what feedback can and should be than the usually unspoken thought that "feedback = negative comments about past performance."

The synonyms reinforce this difference - notice the negative tone of the synonyms for feedback (e.g. retaliation?) versus those for advice (e.g. encouragement).

Feedback and advice.

I think there is one other important difference for leaders - that should be considered by coaches and people interested in helping others develop their skills.

How often do most people seek out, and truly want, feedback (given its tarnished image)? Not so much. And yet, if people truly want to improve or get better at anything, how open are they to advice? Very open!

Your job as a leader is to communicate with people in a way that your messages can best be received. This means you must set up the conversation for ultimate success. So choosing your words can be helpful.

Telling people you need to give them some feedback (especially if you say that on a Friday afternoon when scheduling time to talk with them on Tuesday morning after a holiday weekend), might not set the receiver up to be open to or ready for your communication, even if it is mostly positive!

And in order to communicate successfully you must be clear on your intention as well. If your intention is solely to "give feedback," consider that your message may be unnecessarily unbalanced - and therefore less helpful, more poorly received and potentially counter-productive.

You must give both feedback and advice - a balanced look at performance past and future - in order for your communication to have the best chance to be received.

The bottom line is that you must provide those you lead with observations and data about their past performance: both what is going well and what might need to improve (i.e. give them feedback). And, whether we have nurtured their thirst for improvement yet or not, you also must help them see how to translate past performance into future performance (i.e. give them advice).

Feedback and advice.

Similar, but not the same. Recognizing the differences and doing both is one key to your success as a leader.

Comments

Leaders are in the coaching business. Developing and coaching others is important for all leaders, especially new ones who likely haven't had that responsibility in the past. If you find yourself in a new leadership situation, consider reading From Bud to Boss - Secrets to a Successful Transition to Remarkable Leadership, written by Kevin Eikenberry and Guy Harris. Learn more about the book and join a community of learning leaders who are succeeding in this transition (or helping others do the same) at . Kevin is the author of this article and is the leading expert on creating Remarkable Leaders. Kevin also is a bestselling author, speaker, trainer, consultant and Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group.

Kevins Recommends

The Walls are Talking – Making Meetings Work

Hi. My name is Remarkable House. That is what Kevin and his team (and his family) call me anyway. For a long time I was a family's home - for about 47.5 years anyway. But, for the last 3+ years I've been the offices for The Kevin Eikenberry Group (actually, I'd prefer to say the home). I've also written a couple messages to you (Kevin's readers) in the past - which I never expected. After all, I am a house.

Kevin asked me to write this week to tell you a bit about the team's planning meeting that happened last Monday. I don't really know what Kevin wants me to write about - so I'm going to write what I want. Besides, I'm older than he is anyway. . .

Basically, it was a good - and very busy - day.

I think if you had been at the meeting you would have noticed a lot of things. As a house, I really noticed three things specifically. And from listening to Kevin and others talk inside my walls over the years it seems these three things might be useful for you too:

An agenda.

I've heard it said that many meetings are very effective, and I've heard Kevin talk about the importance of an agenda. One of the first things he said at the meeting was, "we'll practice what we preach by using this agenda template". At the end of the meeting (which finished two minutes late) all agreed that the agenda - especially the desired outcomes - kept them on track towards the most important outcomes.

Mission.

After Kevin talked about the agenda, he spent about 5 minutes talking about why The Kevin Eikenberry Group exists and what the team is trying to accomplish together. I could tell that conversation set the tone for the day, brought the team together and reminded everyone about what is most important. Those ideas and that overall mission (to help more leaders make a bigger difference in the worlds around them) was referred to and discussed throughout the day.

Resistance.

Kevin suggested several ideas which received less than warm reactions! The interesting thing is that as a team they worked through the concerns and issues and, as a result, all agreed that better decisions were reached. In some cases, Kevin's original plan was adopted; in others adjustments were made. Personally, as a house where people come to work, I'm glad they worked through the resistance, rather than Kevin just bulldozing (ooh I hate that word) onward with his ideas.

Hopefully these ideas will help you in your meetings and as a leader. It seems like they could help any leader or organization be more successful.

P.S. The picture is from one of my walls. It is my favorite wall in the house because I get to remind everyone who looks at me about these important ideas.

Oh, and one more thing - here are two other articles I've written for Kevin, in case you missed them:

Stress and Passion and High Performance

My Report on Year End Activities at The Kevin Eikenberry Group

Comments

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