Page 188 - The extraordinary leader

Fatal Flaws Must Be Fixed • 165

focused on the right and wrong kinds of feedback to give to anyone. It did not
distinguish the feedback that would be more appropriate for one group than
another.
Dweck concluded that the wrong feedback to give was anything that was
global, general, or that could be construed simply as praise. If a well-meaning
parent tells a child, “You are really smart” or “You are a gifted student,” what
is that child to think when a week later he is in agony in a class in which the
teacher has given him a problem he cannot solve? Or, what is the employee
to think after a manager has told her what an intelligent and talented
employee she is, and now she has been given a report to write and she simply
is not making any progress on it?
On the other hand, think of the positive outcomes from the parent who tells
the child, “I really admire how hard you’ve worked on learning the multipli-
cation tables” or “You have really been creative about looking for different ways
to get the information for your term paper. When you combine that with how
tenacious you have been, I know you will come up with a good paper.” 6
Or, consider the leader who tells a subordinate, “I want to compliment you
on how hard you have been working and at your ability to overcome the obsta-
cles in your path on this project. The progress you have made is a reflection
on your focused effort.”
The difference in these two approaches may seem subtle to some, but they
are extreme opposites. The first is focused on the person and his or her innate
abilities. The second approach is focused on the process he or she has used
to tackle a project or a problem. That focus may be on the intensity of the
effort, or on the innovative approaches to it, or on the ability to overcome
obstacles, or it could be on the ability not to be distracted by other things. The
benefit of the second approach is that anytime later, if this person is feeling a
challenge in solving a problem or completing a project, his or her thought
processes will be different. The question will not be, “Did my parent (or my
boss) lie to me about being so capable?”
Instead, the thought process after the second pattern of feedback will be,
“Maybe I’m not working hard enough.” “Perhaps I haven’t been innovative
in looking for other ways to solve this problem.” “I need to work harder to
overcome some of the barriers that exist in our systems here.” In short, the
focus is now on the process that is being used, not on his or her fundamental
intelligence or worth as a person.
These two bodies of research on feedback have given us better ways to
understand the different reactions to the same feedback and also provide a