Feedforward | A Powerful Part of our Discovery Phase and a major element of MGSCC Leadership Coaching.
Feedforward is an exceptionally effective way of getting useful suggestions for the future and is invaluable in the discovery and planning stages of any coaching programme.
It’s a significant part of our discovery sessions and Marshall Goldsmith’s coaching process. Marshall used to charge $250k+ for a programme for very top CEOs. We include many aspects of Marshall’s complete process in our Business practitioner and NLP coach practitioner certifications.
Introduction to Feed-forward
The following gives an introduction to feed-forward, later in this page we introduce the key elements of the full MGSCC coaching process.
There are two important and complementary reasons for asking for feedforward:
- Information gathering
- Building and strengthening relationships.
There are also two key concepts to consider. Always know which of the two you’re focusing on.
- Information gathering
- Decision making
When we’re in information-gathering mode a key element is in thanking our stakeholders for sharing their ideas. We’re thanking them for the effort they’ve made, not for the quality of their ideas – which we only consider later.
Feedforward is purely about suggestions for the future, whereas feedback is about the past. Feedforward cannot be negative as it is only suggestions of how to improve in the future.
It’s suggested that when you start asking for feedforward you choose people who are interested in your success. Later, when you’re more experienced in the approach, you can use the approach with perceived blockers and individuals who appear not to want you to succeed. It may be the first step in building a much stronger and more useful relationship.
- Decide on what you want to improve. The choice is endless. In our NLP programmes, most clients want to take their coaching skills to the next level (or their leadership skills, or sales skills).
- Choose 5-10 of your key stakeholders. Ideally, the stakeholders need to have experience with you in the context of that goal.
- Ask each stakeholder for 10-15 minutes of their time to help you develop your approach to a development programme you’re investing in. Face-to-face and Skype/Zoom/Google Meet all work well. The phone is less effective as we want to see the eyes of the person we’re asking. We want them to tell us the truth – not be nice to us or fob us off!
- Ask each stakeholder to be totally straight with you. For example say “I’m investing in a development programme to take my coaching to the next level, and offer my clients the highest possible value. I respect your judgement and would like your input. For this exercise please be totally straight and honest with me.” Check that they are OK with this, and reassure them that it will only take 10-15 minutes.
- Then ask: “If you were me and taking the programme, what would be the top two elements you would focus on to become a really great coach that adds real value?” Then shut up and listen.
- Thank them and write whatever they say down (using their words – not your interpretation of their words.) Your thanks are for them taking the time to think and answer honestly – not for the usefulness of their reply. Only evaluate their suggestions later with your coach.
- Ask if you can come back to them if you have any further questions later.
- Say “You’ve helped me a lot, if there is anything I can do to help you, let me know.”
- Check in with your coach, go through each suggestion and commit to what action you’re going to take. Please note that less is often more. The coach is there to ensure you evaluate each suggestion fairly, not to suggest what you might do.
- We recommend you drop a note to each stakeholder thanking them and outlining what you are going to do, even if you’re not actioning their specific suggestion this time.
Be aware of the key steps in the Marshall Goldsmith stakeholder process: Ask, listen, thank, think, respond, change, follow up.
You may consider some of the following leadership development to improve areas, and areas to reduce when making your choice (Remember if you’re choosing something to reduce, what do you want to improve in its place?)
Leadership Development Areas
Frequently selected areas for leadership growth
Popular with our clients:
- Attracting clients
- Develop the team’s vision, purpose and brand
- Marketing the teams’ successes
- Identify your key stakeholders
- Managing and influencing key stakeholders
- Establish key principles, values and culture
- Develop an effective strategy (turn the viion etc into results)
- Establishing the best performance measures, and the best ways of seeking continual improvement
Communication:
Communicate/listen better
Decision making (incl. e.g. speed of decision making, including opinions of others in decision making)
Be more assertive (incl. speaking up for your own beliefs & opinions)
Manage conflict constructively, timely and effectively
Influencing / persuasive
Developing organizational culture & leaders:
Managing diversity
Build cross-functional relationships
Cross-cultural management
Stand up to people undermining teamwork
Collaborate better with others (incl. being more respectful to others)
Building trust with stakeholders
Executive presence
Self-confidence
Driving team/culture change
Coaching and mentoring
Managing performance:
Delegate effectively
Empower direct reports
Execution for results (incl. focus execution and resources on a few critical business issues)
Strategic Thinking
Be more entrepreneurial
Take calculated risks
Hold others accountable for results
Deal timely with performance problems
20 Behaviours to reduce
What Marshall has learnt from his clients. Some behaviours to reduce.
- Winning too much: The need to win at all costs and in all situations.
- Adding too much value: The overwhelming desire to add our 2 cents to every discussion.
- Passing judgment: The need to rate others and impose our standards on them.
- Making destructive comments: The needless sarcasm and cutting remarks that we think make us witty.
- Starting with NO, BUT, HOWEVER: The overuse of these negative qualifiers which secretly say to everyone that I’m right and you’re wrong.
- Telling the world how smart we are: The need to show people we’re smarter than they think we are.
- Speaking when angry: Using emotional volatility as a management tool.
- Negativity, or “Let me explain why that won’t work”: The need to share our negative thoughts even when we weren’t asked.
- Withholding information: The refusal to share information in order to maintain an advantage over others.
- Failing to give proper recognition: The inability to give praise and reward.
- Claiming credit that we don’t deserve: The most annoying way to overestimate our contribution to any success.
- Making excuses: The need to reposition our annoying behaviour as a permanent fixture so people excuse us for it.
- Clinging to the past: The need to deflect blame away from ourselves and onto events and people from our past; a subset of blaming everyone else.
- Playing favourites: Failing to see that we are treating someone unfairly.
- Refusing to express regret: The inability to take responsibility for our actions, admit we’re wrong, or recognize how our actions affect others.
- Not listening: The most passive-aggressive form of disrespect for colleagues.
- Failing to express gratitude: The most basic form of bad manners.
- Punishing the messenger: The misguided need to attack the innocent who are usually only trying to help us.
- Passing the buck: The need to blame everyone but ourselves.
- An excessive need to be “me”: Exalting our faults as virtues simply because they’re who we are.
Elements of the Full MGSCC Coaching Process
Essential principles in the process:
- Identify and pay attention to your stakeholders
- Emphasise feed-forward
- Change behavior and perception in parallel
5-Step System
- Choose a leadership goal or goals (max 3)
- Enroll stakeholders and get their buy-in to the process
- Create and acion plan based on stakeholder input
- Follow up with stakeholders
- Measure stakeholder perception of improvement
Notes on involving Stakeholders
Ask – Do: Be concise, be specific , be positive. Don’t: Wait for a better time to ask, act skeptical or doubtful, put yourself down
Listen – Do: Pay undivided attention, capture what is said, clarify / confirm what you’ve heard. Don’t: Use no, but or however, make excuses, exhibit impatience or anger
Thank – Do: Say thank you quickly, use first name (if appropriate), be genuine. Don’t: Use a dejected tone, act artificial, be insincere
Think (Ideally with a coach) – Do: Asses benefits of changing, assess cost of changing, decide if it’s worth it. Don’t: Engage in delusional thinking, prove the input is wrong, validate “this is the way I am”.
Respond (let stakeholders know you’ve listened to them) – Do: Be brief, be positive, be future focused. Don’t critique feedback and feedforward, respond to too many things, over-commit.
Change – Do: Apply suggestions in parallel, maintain momentum, make the change visible. Don’t: Procrastinate, give in to ‘feeling like a phony’, expect instant success.
Follow-up (Get feedback on how you’re progressing, this is usually at the start of the next round of feedforward.) – Do: Politely push for specifics, reinforce the process, make change visible. Don’t: Dwell on the past, become complacent, brag, gloat or show off.
Leaders requirements
Be coachable
- Demonstrate an element of ambition, courage, discipline and openness/honesty throughout the programme
- Have sufficient time, energy and focus,
- Choose the coach (as the coach has to choose their clients),
- Buy-in to the process below
Process requirements
- Have a clear leadership goal or goals and engage stakeholders
- Goes public with these goal (s) with their stakeholders and asks for their help and support
- Build an action plan based on their input
- Follows up with stakeholders frequently
- Formally measures results with stakeholders
Coaches requirements
- Credible
- Confidential
- Have sufficient time, energy and focus
- Knowledge of the MGSCC process and how to guide the leader through it
Stakeholders requirements
- Be supportive
- Pay attention
- Be helpful
- Honestly assess progress
Phases of the MGSCC coaching process
- Start smart: a) contract/understand and agree to required attitudes and framework, b) select behaviour (s) to develop, c) enrol stakeholders,
- Implementing the action plan: a) create an action plan, b) leader follow up with stakeholders, c) check in with the coach, d) provide feedback to stakeholders, as required (rehearse mini-survey and after action review).
- Sustain Success: a) reinforce the behaviours change process b) measure progress (min-survey) e) after action review, c) plan the transition.
After action reviews
- What did I set out to do?
- What happened (good and bad?)
- Why did it happen/What insights did you have?
- Learning/What will I do moving forward?
Feedforward check-in forms
These can be used for confidential check-ins with stakeholders, or self-assessment check-ins with stakeholders.
Content of check-in forms
- Relationship with leader
- Has the leader shared their growth area (s)
- Have the leaders asked for feed-forward
- Has the leader shared their action plan
- Has the leader asked for feedback
- How has the leader improved/got worse (+3 to -3 for either),
One development area: https://forms.gle/AfaDeDRpYNnUL5mb7
Two development areas: https://forms.gle/i9HPj561gMpCaiWh8
Three development areas: https://forms.gle/KBjNYzqxZoiwRLw28
Leadership Self Assessment
We’re also offering a Marshall Goldsmith leadership self assessment as part of our planning and discovery phase, please book a call with Michael if you’re interested in this.
Leadership quiz (assessment): https://forms.gle/X5ghwemrA3ASDGnY9
Michael’s online calendar:
NLP Training
We offer unique 1:1 NLP training worldwide, certified by NLP co-founder and the SNLP. See our NLP practitioner training, and our NLP training courses.
Full NLP Techniques List
NLP Plan Section Index
1: Why plan?
2: Self sabotage
3: Plans A, B & Z
4: Success Quiz
5: Time, energy and focus
6: End goals, milestones and focus
7: Feedforward
8: Planning and review questions
9: Daily questions
10: Summary
