By Lt. Col. John Hansen, 86th Comptroller Squadron commander
/ Published October 15, 2015
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AFNS) -- I was going through
some old files, and I found a few notes that were written to me by the
comptroller of a major command on several different occasions. One letter
conveyed his best wishes on my birthday. A second one thanked me and my unit
for our hospitality during his recent visit to the base. These letters reminded
me how important it is to maintain constant communication at all levels.
The letters also reminded me of the lost art of written
communication. These were not short emails tasking me with a suspense or
requesting information; they were handwritten letters that showed he took the
time to sit down at his desk and write them longhand, with the singular purpose
of providing positive feedback from one professional to another.
As I am also in the middle of performing midterm feedback
sessions, they reminded me I should take a great deal of time to carefully
prepare the Airman Comprehensive Assessment (ACA) feedback worksheet, Air Force
Form 724.
The Air Force specifically designed this new feedback form
in order to better facilitate a dialogue between a member and supervisor. In
fact, this form will need to be routed through the coordination process for
members' enlisted performance reports. In addition to taking the time to complete
the form, I sat down with each individual and provided feedback, in terms of
improvements to be made and behavior to sustain.
It is not necessarily easy to provide honest feedback.
Obvious deficiencies can be easy to identify and communicate, but it can be
difficult to come up with areas of improvement for your unit's outstanding
performers. However, it can and must be done, as everyone has room for
improvement.
You must be deliberate and judicious when giving feedback to
your ratees. Most people take feedback given to them seriously, and they may
even take it personally.
Consequently, it is vital to take the time to prepare the
exact message you want to convey and the most appropriate method in which to
deliver it. A simple sentence may resound with your ratee long after your
feedback session, with positive or negative impacts lasting years or even
throughout that member's entire career.
Moreover, feedback should not be one-directional.
Subordinates and peers need to engage in a constant, fact-based cross-feed with
one another. If your organization has a disruptive person, his or her peers
have the responsibility to step up and let the person know that they are
negatively affecting the unit. Conversely, peers can provide positive
reinforcement when they see a member suffering. That positive communication can
be the impetus for turning someone's day or even their life around.
Subordinates can provide valuable feedback as well. There
seems to be the temptation not to tell the boss bad news, but, as the saying
goes, bad news never gets better with age.
Telling the emperor that he or she has no clothes might be
difficult or embarrassing, but the only way to affect change is if subordinates
provide positive, constructive, fact-based feedback to the organization's
leadership. Subordinates, and everyone for that matter, need to understand that
there is a tactful way to provide feedback, and, when in doubt, use the Golden
Rule on how you'd communicate feedback in that situation.
Honest and constructive feedback is essential to the
integrity of our Air Force units. The Air Force has developed the tools and
processes to facilitate this dialogue, but it is up to each and every one of
us, at all levels, to provide deliberate feedback to our subordinates, peers and
leaders in a way that is tactful and professional.
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