Week three, and it was a trying, yet triumphant one.
Although it may have been plagued by personal and professional overload, at the
end of the day, I feel that I handled it well. I didn’t find myself engaging in
overly emotional reactions to others despite the fact that there was so much
work to be done and my husband was 1,800 miles away being admitted to the
hospital for acute renal failure due to kidney stones lodging in his bladder
and urethral tubes. I think that the testing of what I could handle and how I would
react…especially after the turbulence I endured at work last week was somewhat
monumentally successful! Although I was mentally worn out, I set goals for
myself to focus on the work that needed to be completed, the preparation of
what was required to transport my husband from Las Vegas back to Florida in
order for him to receive surgery and post-operative care, as well as conclude
several small projects that continued to land on my desk to the lacking professionalism
that continues to take place in adjacent departments. The projects were turned
in, the results provided timely, and in addition and most importantly, as of
today, my husband is home and recovering well!
This week we found that feedback and goal-setting truly
should be considered as two parts of the same dynamic. As our reading provided
for thought this week, “…giving feedback on performance without having…goals
does not lead to improved performance” (Brown, 2011, p. 321) . Moreover, feedback
that is specific, timely, and given in a manner that provides relevancy is essential
towards achieving optimal results in relation to goal setting and is a
necessary condition in which we cannot ignore the correlation between the two (Erez, 1977) . In fact, one would
be able to easily argue the absurdity that exists in which one would be willing
to set goals and not seek out or provide feedback; it would be an exercise in
complete utility to not be able to see how one directly impacts the other, and vice
versa.
For example, how would athletes be able to train without
knowing what benchmarks to try to accomplish? How would students be able to demonstrate
understanding of scholastic materials and achievement without grades? How would
we know when our temperature was demonstrating the fighting of a disease,
virus, or bacteria if we didn’t have a normalized core body temperature of 98.6
degrees? Without knowing what is expected, there is no way in which we are able
to measure or balance our efforts towards what we are attempting to achieve. As
our reading unfolded to us, “frequent, relevant, and specific feedback is
important for goal setting to be a success” (Brown, 2011, p. 321) , and in the absence
of feedback from others, we have no way in which for our efforts to be managed,
coached, or weighed towards what we are trying to accomplish.
I know that when I am working out on a regular basis, and at
the end of our nine-week training cycle, I have a number in my mind…my magic
number…in which is what I am aiming to hit on our max-effort 1 time lift the
following week. I know exactly how it feels when I set out to deadlift
200-pounds and was able to pull 225-pounds off the floor for the very first
time---it was exhilarating and fascinating to think I wasn’t even going to make
it to 200, let alone in one last try, somehow and someway I managed to lift 25
more pounds along the way! I guess, although I didn’t set out to have that
specific number in mind, I approached the lift in such a way that allowed me to
feel that my magic number is 200, and anything else I managed to pull off the
ground was bonus. This gave me a goal, but not the limitation towards talking myself
out of doing more if I was physically able to do so.
Additionally this week, our concept mapping project was a
great one; I am now able to reflect upon and see that there is a difference
when goal setting for motivational goals, versus task related goals (Locke, 1996) . For example, the
harder the goal we set, the greater we feel when we are able to achieve this (Locke, 1996) , and likewise, the
more specific the goal we set, the easier it is for us to regulate our
behaviors and actions, as well as evaluate our efforts towards the goal (Locke, 1996) . However, it is not
enough just to set a specific goal and make sure it is challenging, we have to
be willing to encompass “techniques for coaching and providing feedback” (Milwaukee County) .
Feedback is going to be essential, not just in our
professional lives as emerging leaders, but also our personal lives as we
encounter we wish to encounter ongoing growth and change. Feedback, when done
correctly, is a mutual give and take exchange of information between two
people, not just a manager and subordinate (Milwaukee County) . Feedback can
actually reduce ambiguity, retrain focus, help coach and develop others, as
well as “identify what is blocking the employee from goal attainment” (Milwaukee County) . From this week
forward, I think it would be impossible for me to see goals and feedback as a mutually
linked GPS that will help me land exactly where I am trying to be…setting my
horizon in the distance and finding the optimal steps and routes to take to get
there. The GPS not only shows where you are going, but where you have been,
what route you have taken along the way to get where you are going, and how
much farther you have until you reach your ideal destination.
I do agree that Brown’s generational theory holds water
based upon personal experience. Where I am chomping at the bit as a member of
Generation-X to have people show me, tell me, explain to me, more and more…I
have found that the older we get, the more set in our ways we are. This
hesitation or ignorance that some of us experience (maybe intolerance is more
appropriate) comes from doing things over and over and over again the same way,
and when nobody is giving us feedback regarding it, we think or feel we are
doing great things, otherwise, wouldn’t have someone mentioned it years ago?
Although I am big enough to admit that my need for feedback
comes from a performance driven metric and an internal desire to please and
impress others for approval, I realize that not everyone wants to be told along
the way, “hey…you may do better if you…”. I realize that it is mostly in the approach
and need for consistency, but at the end of the day, I think I will always be
one of those people that prefers to know exactly where I stand with, and in the
eyes of, others.
Until we blog again!
References
Brown, D. R. (2011). An Experiential Approach to
Organizational Development, Eight Edition. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.
Erez, M. (1977). Feedback: A Necessary Condition for
the Goal Setting-Performance Relationship. Journal of Applied Psychology,
624-627.
Locke, E. A. (1996). Motivatin through conscious
goal setting. Applied & Preventative Psychology, 117-124.
Milwaukee County. (n.d.). A Guide for Goal Setting
and Employee Feedback. Milwaukee, WI.
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