If you’ve been keeping up with me, you’ve probably heard me highlight the importance of pointing out observable behavior when you give feedback to your team members. This emphasis reflects guidance in the Manager Tools feedback model as well as the Situation-Behavior-Impact model commonly known as SBI.
But when you’re giving positive feedback, the way you describe impact that results from that behavior is a great opportunity to reinforce the broader culture and identity you want to foster among your team.
For a junior engineer or a poor performer, a single successful task may need to be recognition enough. But as your team member grows, you can start to praise patterns of behavior.
Recurring success at a task becomes evidence of a capability. Use your feedback to highlight the skill or judgment that you’re noticing, in addition to the observable behaviors.
Repeated demonstration of a capability then becomes evidence of an identity. If they’re serving a needed role such as a mentor, facilitator, protector, thinking or sparring partner, use your feedback to highlight the person they are becoming.
As you move from behavior to capability to identity, you reinforce patterns that have more powerful and longer lasting impact on the individual and your team.
And if you’d like to strengthen your own behaviors, capabilities, and identity to become the manager your team needs, let’s talk. Visit stevedwire.com/talk to start the conversation.
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