If Your Feedback Zone is Analyzer…

As a leader, you have your own unique set of beliefs about giving feedback, what it should be like, and why it’s hard to do. As a shortcut to self-awareness about your feedback blocks, biases, and strengths, we’ve identified four basic feedback “zones.” You can use these to locate your own beliefs about what is means to give feedback to employees and contrast them to the other three feedback zones that describe other leaders’ assumption about feedback.

Details yes, emotions no

Your zone is Analyzer if what is most important to you is preparing the facts and details ahead of any feedback discussion and what makes you anxious is the possibility that an employee will respond emotionally to your feedback. The Analyzer is a thinker (not primarily a feeler) and is typically more introverted than extroverted.

Analyzer’s gift

The Analyzer’s gift when it comes to feedback is the ability to provide clear examples and details of the behavior being discussed with the employee. If your manager is an Analyzer, you may receive a well-prepared matrix with notes that are broken down into specific goals and topics. If the two of you are talking about the topic of customer service, your manager will provide quotes, ratings, emails, and/or notes from customers about your performance. The Analyzer will also track changes in your customers’ purchasing after your service to them and be ready to review the causes and effects of your behavior toward the customer. If your manager lives in the Analyzer feedback zone, you’ll have many of your questions answered about the specifics of what you did well or poorly.

Analyzer’s fear

Frequent, spontaneous feedback is hard for the Analyzer, so employees may feel frustrated. The Analyzer is slow to any feedback at all, and makes it even slower by insisting on a lot a detailed preparation–even when it isn’t necessary to get the point across. The Analyzer is quite uncomfortable giving corrective feedback because it stirs up the possibility that you will disagree with it and become defensive and aggressive or on the other hand you will have your feelings hurt and withdraw or cry. There’s actual survey research showing a major reason for feedback avoidance by managers is a fear that employees will cry.

The challenge for an Analyzing manager is to keep the good parts of detailed observations to help people but lose the over cautiousness to pick up the pace of frequent no-big-deal feedback conversations.