In a Sherpa’s world, the group of people they work with to climb the mountain are a team, not a family. If you are not pulling your weight, unwell or just not fit enough, you will be dropped from the team. It is not personal, it is about your ability to contribute to the team when they need it most. It is essential that the strongest team is taken to the summit, for the good of the collective.
You can choose your team, but you cannot choose your family. In a summit team, you are gathered, you all train together and when summit push arrives, the decision is made if you are selected. For relationships to withstand team selection, there needs to have been a variety of feedback, positive and negative, in the lead up so everyone knows where they stand. It is possible to deliver a negative message in a way where the relationship is sustained and that is to act with integrity and take the emotion out of the delivery. If constructive feedback has been given effectively over a period, it will not come as a surprise to the individual who is cut from the team, they will take responsibility.
It is easy when you work with a team every day to start thinking of them as family. However, when emotions come into the equation, our attention is directed away from focusing on the needs of the wider team. Research gathered for a Harvard Business Review article showed that workers preferred to receive constructive (negative) to positive (praise) feedback, but it was the delivery that determine how receptive they were. In modern workplaces, it is essential that we develop our skills in giving constructive feedback because although we want to receive it, the fact is that few of us like to give it.
92% of the respondents agreed with the assertion, “Negative (redirecting) feedback, if delivered appropriately, is effective at improving performance.
When the feedback is delivered in a factual, unemotional way and is linked directly to the needs of the business, this makes the message easier to hear, thus, easier to deliver.
As leaders, when we come from a place of doing the best for the collective, we realise that it is our duty to enable everyone to be the best that they can be and providing constructive feedback is part of that. It is not expected that the coach of our favourite sporting team will play someone who is not performing. We expect them to give clear areas of improvement, support them and maintain the relationship so when they can offer a meaningful contribution, they will slot seamlessly into the team. When this approach is taken (within the guidelines of employment law), you will have a strong summiting team who has the greatest chance of reaching the goals and supporting each other to do so.
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