Delivering effective feedback can be one of the most difficult things for managers,
leaders and healthcare providers to give. Leading your teams in medicine requires direct, timely feedback to ensure mistakes are addressed, accountability is taken and improvement is made to processes and behaviors. Many people struggle to have the difficult conversations around feedback for fear of conflict, rejection or betrayal with that individual or perhaps even the group. Often, giving timely redirection doesn't happen because managers or leaders worry they are hurting someone's feelings or may damage the relationship for the future. As a result, mistakes continue to occur, unwanted behaviors persist and teams begin to lose effectiveness and perhaps even confidence in their leaders. Leaders in medicine that can harness the influence of compassionate candor in their feedback will not only strengthen the trust within their teams, but also propel their team to higher levels of performance.
Providing feedback is critical to an individual and the organization's growth. Certainly feedback given can be both positive and negative, but it is important to ensure the individual experiences that feedback from a place of compassion. I use the term compassionate candor to describe the helpful and direct approach leaders and managers can use to provide feedback to others. To better understand this term, let's revisit the difference between empathy and compassion.
Psychology Today https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/empathy defines empathy as the ability to recognize, understand, and share the thoughts and feelings of another person, animal, or fictional character Having empathy to recognize that receiving information about the work you do or the behaviors you display can be met with defensiveness, anxiety and sometimes even anger. For those working in healthcare, empathy is something many of us utilize and convey in our day to day jobs of caring for others in medicine. Using this empathy to create a desire to help someone is how compassion is formed. Compassion is an emotional response to empathy or sympathy and creates a desire to help. When we provide compassionate candor to someone, we are providing insights for the individual in attempt to help them with what they are struggling with and overcome ineffective behaviors. As a leader who practices compassionate candor, you must begin with having good intent. With that good intent in mind, you begin crafting feedback with a compassionate approach that serves to help the person grow and succeed the next time. If you can move your mindset beyond the empathetic approach to feedback which focuses on the emotions this individual or even yourself , you will create more distance from your own bias, fears or judgements.
"In any given moment, we have two options, to step forward into growth or step back into safety" Abraham Maslow
Compassionate candor allows for direct intentional feedback that is rooted in goodwill. Ask yourself prior to giving the feedback, how can I ensure that my intent is grounded in servant leadership if not for myself, but for the organization? Particularly, if this feedback is met with defensiveness, how can you maintain compassionate candor. First, you can recognize that fear of separation, anxiety or punishment is something both of you may be triggered by with feedback. Adhering to the underlying principle of showing concern for this person, will allow you to stay close to overall intent of this feedback.
Using vague, nonspecific words doesn't prevent those emotions but can prevent clear communication of what you intended. Providing candor or directness to feedback allows clear explanation of what you see as an opportunity for redirection and provides real examples of what behaviors you are providing feedback to change. LinkedIn's CEO Jeff Weiner writes about one of the pieces of feedback his mentor shared with him.
"Wisdom without compassion is ruthlessness and compassion without wisdom
is folly.”
Compassionate candor requires courage to confront your own fear of taking action versus taking no action. As a leader in medicine, you can only begin to lead others when you are willing to be courageous in understanding your own shortcomings and blindspots. When you choose to not give feedback or disguise it in vague words that provide no insight, you deprive the person and your team of growth and actualization. This can lead to frustration among team members when a low performer continues to drag down the group and leaders choose to act politely rather than candidly. Remember the guiding principle of good intent. Choosing to be direct with feedback may be daunting for some and easy for others, but showing your compassion within that candor allows for you to serve others and truly be leading in medicine.
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