I thought I might say a few words about the essence of coaching – feedback.  The essence of coaching?  In our experience feedback and the significantly overlooked feedforward is indeed the epicentre of coaching.  It is the basis for everything else.

Feedback is mainly concerned with giving information on what has happened in the distant or immediate past, there is an acknowledgement that the more future-focused orientation, feedforward, is as crucial for improving performance.  In fact I would go as far as say more important if you are hoping to encourage achievement and development.

Feedforward is rooted in Positive Psychology (e.g. Seligman, 2000) and Appreciative Enquiry (AI) (Cooperrider and Srivastava, 1987).  The basic tenets of AI are to use the best of “what is” to pursue the possibilities of “what could be.”  The emphasis is firmly on achievement, as opposed to problem solving, and on mutual participation.

Kluger and Nir (2006) reasoned that AI, paired with relatively recent movement of Positive Psychology, which also endeavours to promote the functional rather then inhibit the dysfunctional, it offers a framework for optimising feedback processes – “feedforward first, feedback later.”  I believe too much of our practice at work is concerned with the evaluation of past behaviour.  In my experience as a an external coach and internally as a manager of teams such practice is liable to a whole host of unwanted effects and distortions, such as biases where we rate those whom we like highly or place more weight to superior’s rating even if this is wrong.  Instead, I think it is more fruitful to put those who are about to receive feedback into a positive frame of mind first be focusing on their strengths, then getting them to think about the future before feeding back performance information.  Which may indeed not be necessary at all?

It is quite simple.  I think we do it anyway, but perhaps not enough?  It’s a matter of recognising the need to feedforward and raising people’s awareness of its importance in building good positive relations at work, and improving performance.

A recent example I had with a coachee was when my client had been referred to me in order to support him develop his potential to move to a more senior rank in the organisation.  He was a senior operations manager in a large global engineering firm.  He was in his fifties, and he initially presented himself as being reluctant, saying that “he had always been a ‘thorn in the side of management’, and was by nature difficult to deal with and thus could not see how he could benefit.”  Our sessions (of which there were eight one hour sessions) thus concentrated on getting my client to think about situations where he felt at his best, and could make plans for the future.  This led to the realisation that he had little desire to grow into a senior role that involved more hands-on staff management, but would rather enhance his technical skills and become a recognised expert in the organisation.  The last step was to agree an action plan that could be taken outside the coaching sessions, to be shared and agreed with other stakeholders in the organisation.  This was received more favourably by his senior partners who had seen this potential in him, but not considered this as an option for the business.

We focused on what he was good at and what he could do to improve. The framing was solution-focused. The sessions were always about feeding forward.  Simple?

I ask then:

What do we as coaches and/or leaders need to be mindful of when using feedforward?

Where would this obvious technique be useful and where would it not?