In this discussion, Erin Meyer, a Professor at INSEAD and an expert on intercultural communication, dives into the complexities of feedback within diverse teams. She highlights how mixing different backgrounds can lead to better outcomes, yet often clashes with the need for candid feedback. Erin introduces the 'three A's of feedback' to foster inclusivity and constructive communication. She emphasizes the importance of establishing regular feedback norms and tailoring communication to overcome discomfort and power imbalances, ultimately enhancing team dynamics.
Establishing norms around regular feedback and ensuring that it is asked for, designed to assist, and actionable can help overcome the clash between diversity and candor in teams.
Structured feedback routines, like meetings dedicated to providing feedback, can bridge generational divides and address different perspectives on the frequency and sources of feedback within diverse teams.
Deep dives
Challenges of Diversity and Feedback
Diverse teams and organizations can outperform homogeneous ones, but giving and receiving feedback is a crucial area where they often fall short. Different individuals have different expectations around feedback. Open and direct feedback may not work well in diverse groups as people are often not ready to hear feedback from those they don't feel safe with. Diversity can include gender, age, and cultural differences. These differences can create challenges in receiving feedback, such as age-based discomfort and power dynamics, or gender-based issues like mansplaining or mansplaining. Raising awareness, setting up routine feedback mechanisms, and using the three A's of feedback (aim to assist, actionable, ask for feedback) can help bridge these divides.
Generational Differences in Feedback
Generational diversity impacts feedback expectations. The study conducted in Germany revealed the concept of status incongruence, which shows that employees are less happy when their bosses are younger than them. Each generation has a different perspective on the frequency and sources of feedback. While cross-generational feedback from a boss is expected, younger generations advocate for feedback among peers and even giving feedback to superiors. Structured feedback routines, like meetings dedicated to providing feedback, can help bridge generational divides.
Gender Differences in Feedback
Gender differences can create issues in giving and receiving feedback. Unsolicited advice from men to women, known as man-vising, can be perceived as a power play. Cultural norms and stereotypes can also influence feedback dynamics, with men giving more unsolicited advice to women. To address this, feedback should aim to assist, be actionable, and ask for feedback before providing it. Establishing routine feedback practices and equalizing feedback exchanges among genders can create a supportive feedback culture.
We know that teams mixing people of different generations, genders, and cultures yield better outcomes, and that frank, constructive feedback is key to improving individual, group, and organizational performance. But these two attributes -- diversity and candor -- often clash, says Erin Meyer, a professor at INSEAD. She's studied the challenges that arise when teammates with different backgrounds try to give one another advice and offers recommendations for overcoming them, including establishing norms around regular feedback and ensuring that it is asked for, designed to assist, and actionable. She’s the author of the HBR article “When Diversity Meets Feedback.”
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