I had the fortune to attend two matches from the WTA Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship last Monday night. It was a wonderful to just sit there and admire the physical strength, tactical prowess and mental agility of these women tennis champions, with good ol’ Venus Williams dispatching 17 year old Swiss rookie Belinda Bencic. Prior to that a was 2.5 hour tennis slogging fest between Mona Barthel and Daniela Hantuchova.

During the first match, the actual star for me was the tennis umpire who simply stole the show. The chair umpire in tennis isn’t the only one officiating a tennis match – he’s actually the leader of a team of line umpires and together they’re the guardians of the Rules of Tennis and enforce them to ensure a match is played in the spirit of fair play. The chair umpires success and like any other leader is dependent on his team’s ability to deliver – in this case, the line umpires making  the right calls on whether a ball is in or out.

Using Immediate Feedback to Guide a Team

So why was my ‘man of the match’ stealing the show? This umpire was great in keeping his team on their toes and perform. He was constantly interacting with them (and remember he can’t call or say anything so every thing was done in sign language). Whenever a line umpire made a good close call, he ‘silently applauded’ the line umpire and whenever the call was wrong he clearly hand signaled his displeasure. He motivated the line umpire to focus and stay in the game. During each ‘break’ he would hand signal to each of his line umpires, one by one, his gratitude and appreciation for a job well done.

This umpire knew that his ability to lead would depend on the performance of each team member. And during the match he fully utilized the one and only tool he had in his possession: providing feedback immediately.

Tips for Providing Feedback

Many bosses still rely too often on the annual performance ritual for providing feedback to their subordinates. Some have more frequent performance conversations, but few bosses take out the opportunity to coach and give feedback immediately. Research has shown that people that are given immediate feedback increase their performance by a whopping 40%. That’s huge.

So here are some tips on giving immediate feedback:

1. Intentions: Be clear on what your intentions are for giving feedback. Is it about helping the person you’re leading or is it about releasing your frustration about something that didn’t go the way you want it to go? Be honest to yourself and obviously if there’s even a sliver of frustration, delay your feedback until you’ve cleared your head.
2. Check In: My experience has shown me that if you ask someone whether they’re open for feedback, they’ll always say yes. However, usually that’s said more out of curiosity and the expectation that the feedback is positive rather than being ready for the truth.
3. Timing: Time your feedback so that:

• it’s as close as possible to the event you want to give feedback on,
• your intentions are focused on helping the other person, and
• the receiver is ready to absorb the feedback and act on it.

4. Pick the Right Place: Most of us would not like to receive constructive feedback in public. The only reasons you should ever give people feedback in public is if you want to appreciate someone or you want to show that you hold people accountable for not delivering on commitment
5. Be Specific: Make it as concrete as possible by basing it on actual observations and data points rather than perceptions or hearsay.
6. Job Focused: Only focus your feedback on job related or performance impacting observations. Don’t make it about the the person or his personality.
7. Ask Questions: Give feedback in the forms of questions such as:

• Why did you do it this way?
• Did you notice what happened when you said that?
• How would the results have been different if you would have done or said this?

Often leaders don’t give feedback because of the perceived consequences that a person might become demotivated, making everyone’s life difficult. The truth of course is that it works the other way: by giving feedback immediately and in the right way, people can learn and improve themselves.

I promise you that despite the fact that the chair umpire was tough a couple of times on his team but they performed better and would choose to be part of his team given the choice in the future. After all, a leader who is good at providing feedback will be creating a strong, confident team who looks forward to achieving their goals. I hope you chose to be part of this team by connecting with me on Twitter or signing up to the blog. Until next time!

photo credit: Nova Spivack gives a thumbs-up for the Fish Curry via photopin (license)