Catalytic Leadership – Feedback

Feedback is an important aspect for the organization and its employees. It plays an integral part in shaping up the career of the employee. Let’s begin with a story

In the past, there was a popular orator who performed his discourses at many places. One day he was to perform his discourse in a village during a festival.

He travelled by a horse carriage and had a nice talk with the coachman who drove the carriage. They reached the village and to the surprise of both, there was no one in the audience.

The coachman went to find out why and came back with the answer that there was another acrobatic event happening nearby and all the people had gone there.

Disappointed and frustrated the orator sat back very sad. Looking at the sadness, the coachman, who was not educated as the orator was, started speaking in a consoling tone.

“Sir, don’t mistake me. I am not learned, as you are, to provide you any advice. But, I would like to tell you what occurs to my mind, if you are OK with it”

The orator nodded and listened to what the coachman had to say. The coachman continued.

“Sir, I have 30 horses in my stable and I rent them out for various occasions. Sometimes, all the horses, except one,  go out on service.”

“In such a situation, I never ignore that there is just that one horse, I still feed it”.

The orator was filled with a sudden spurt of enlightenment and encouragement on hearing the words of the coachman. He said to the coachman,

“Come on, you are my only audience and I will do my discourse for just you alone”

The discourse went for 3 hours and the orator was galloping like the coachman’s horse throughout the discourse.

At the end of it, the orator so satisfied with what he had delivered to that “one” audience of his, asked.
“How was the discourse? Was it good? Did you like it?”

For which the coachman replied, “Sir, I am not sure if I am qualified to comment on your discourse, but I would like to tell what occurs to my mind, if you would not mistake me”

The orator was happy to hear again what the coachman had to tell and encouraged the coachman to go ahead with his opinion.

The coachman said, “Sir, I said that I would feed that one horse in my stable when the other horses have gone for service. However, I would give only the amount of feed for that one horse could eat, not that of thirty horses'”

That was it; the orator shut his mouth for the reminder of the journey back.

The same goes with providing feedback for the employees of the organizations. Feedback has to be provided in the right quantities and at the right time. It is not a one time affair and it has to be continuous. However, in many organizations, feedback is provided once a year during their performance reviews. The employee neither remembers nor has any chance to correct any mistakes or have a learning for the actions done.

A good leader would always give continuous feedback that helps the employee take corrective actions quickly and provide the right direction for their growth.

Image Credits: Pixabay