Nice and nasty

5th November 2018

Positive feedback means offering praise and encouragement, and challenging feedback means applying a degree of stress.

Applying stress shouldn’t mean shouting, threatening or insulting. It can mean expressing concern or frustration, pointing out mistakes and their consequences, or asking awkward questions.

Coaches John Blakey and Ian Day came up with a great concept: the “Support-Challenge Matrix”. It goes like this:

If you’re not providing much of either support or challenge, nothing matters and the delegatee drifts into apathy and boredom.

So, you need to get involved.

However, if you’re overly agreeable, and smother him with nothing but praise, he becomes smug and complacent.

If you’re providing nothing but challenge (“If you can’t do this I’ll find someone who can!”), he experiences only stress, which is the zone of low morale, blame, risk aversion and staff attrition.

Balance is the thoughtful application of both, in harmony. It’s the zone of excitement, engagement, high performance and surprising results.