Active Listening and Giving Feedback

Active Listening, Feedback

and Action Setting

The webinar will begin shortly

Aims and Objectives

Understand how to give constructive feedback and set meaningful
objectives for development

•

Demonstrate active listening techniques

•

State the features of constructive feedback

•

List the pitfalls when giving feedback

•

Describe coaching models for structuring feedback

•

Describe the SMART model for setting objectives

•

Demonstrate the writing of a SMART action plan

Active Listening

Effective communication is more than picking the right words and
engaging an audience, of one or of many. It is also about learning to
listen.

Becoming an engaged listener

To communicate effectively you don’t have to agree with
someone, or even like them! But you do have to set aside
judgement, blame and criticism in order to fully understand
them.

Active Listening makes people feel heard and understood,
which can help build positive relationships, lower stress,
promote

mental

wellbeing

and

create

productive

workplaces.

Active Listening

•Pay Attention!

•Don’t interrupt

•Show interest / Acknowledge

•Summarise / Paraphrase

•Provide Feedback

Active Listening

Active Listening

Have a Go!

Uh huh

Go on..

So what

you’re

saying is….

Sounds like

you’re

saying..

Giving Feedback

Constructive Feedback

•

Encourages reflection

•

Builds self esteem

•

Identifies effective practice

•

Promotes awareness

•

Helps identify actions

•

Brings about change

Feedback Methods

What are the features of effective feedback?

•

Feedback Sandwich

• Specific
• Meaningful
• Proactive / Goal oriented
• Future focussed
• Timely

What methods of feedback might we use?

Feedback Methods

What are the features of effective feedback?

•

Feedback Sandwich

•

Mutual Learning Approach

• Specific
• Meaningful
• Proactive / Goal oriented
• Future focussed
• Timely

What methods of feedback might we use?

•Location (Privacy)
•Timing
•Evidence base/ Examples
•Internal relationships
•Over-friendly/over-officious attitude
•Over-talking
•Lack of clear improvement messages.

Potentials Pitfalls

Coaching Models

GROW
Model

CLEAR
Model

OSKAR
Model

GROW Model

Goal

Reality

Options

Way

Forward

CLEAR Model

Contracting

Listening

Exploring

Action

Review

Establish what outcomes they want to achieve. Opening up the
discussion and establishing the scope of the coaching, Setting
ground rules for working together

Using Active Listening and empathy to help the person gain an
understanding of their situation

Help the person understand the personal impact the situation is
having on them as well as the organisational impact on the
business and colleagues

Helping the person choose a way forward and decide on their next
steps

Closing out the session with a recap and encouraging feedback
on what went well and what might work better in future coaching
sessions.

OSKAR Model

What do they want to achieve short, medium and long term as well as
from this session.

On a scale of 1 – 10 where are they in relation to this goal

What Skills or Knowledge do you already have and is there anything
similar that has worked before? What are they known for doing well?

Give positive reinforcement to positives discussed and decide on
small actions to move towards desired goal.

Review progress against the actions. This is likely to be at the start of
the next coaching session. What is better and what made that work?

Outcome

Scaling

Know-How

Affirm & Action

Review

Action Planning

Working S.M.A.R.T

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Relevant

Time based

Working S.M.A.R.T

Specific

A vague goal does not allow your employee to understand
how they can contribute to the success of the target you
want them to achieve.

A specific goal should describe an observable action,
behaviour or result

When creating a specific action ask:
• What needs to be accomplished?
• What steps need to be taken to achieve it?
• What parts of the goal are essential?

Specific

Measurable

A SMART action has criteria for measuring progress.
Without these, you will not be able to determine your
employees progress and if they are on track to reach the
goal.

When creating a measurable action ask:
• How do I know they’ve completed the action?
• What are the key indicators for progress?
• What does success look like?

Measurable

Working S.M.A.R.T

Achievable

There is no point giving someone an action they don’t
have the skills or resources to achieve, without also
supporting their development.

The goal should make them feel challenged, but be
defined well enough that they can achieve it.

When creating an achievable action ask:
• Given the available time and resources, is the action

achievable?

• What support might they need to develop the necessary

skills?

Working S.M.A.R.T

Achievable

Relevant

Actions should be relevant to the role or desired
development of the employee. They need to understand
how this goal will contribute to the business and help them
progress.

When creating a relevant action ask:
• Is the action relevant to the role, development or

aspirations of the employee?

• How will this action help the person develop or

contribute to the business goals?

Working S.M.A.R.T

Relevant

Time based

A time based action has a clear start time and a clear end
date.

For long term goals, try to split the action into monthly or
quarterly goals towards meeting the overall aim.

When creating a time based action ask:
• When do they need to accomplish this by?
• What check in points do I need to put in place to check

progress towards this goal?

Working S.M.A.R.T

Time based

Action Plan

Reduce the number of spelling and grammatical errors in written reports

S
Reduce the number of spelling and grammatical errors in written reports

M
Comparing the number of errors to previous reports

A

Easy to fix. If barriers such as Dyslexia exist, suggest strategies to support, such
as spelling and grammar check programs or speak to type software

R
Not out of the bounds of their ability / Related to the issue or development

T
A reasonable time frame in which to improve their skills

Issue: Comms logs have lots of mistakes throughout.

What is our SMART objective?

E-learning is outstanding and needs to be completed

S
pecific

M
easurable

A
chievable

R
elevant

T
imebound

Action Planning

Make it SMART!

Someone is off sick a lot

Development: Someone wants to take on additional
responsibility as a Mentor

Recruiter isn’t monitoring where people learned about
available jobs with Right at Home

Someone wants to improve their knowledge of Diabetes

Goal Setting

Bums on a Rugby Post!

Goal Setting

Bums on a Rugby Post!

hat

ho

hy

hen

o
w

Goal Setting

hat is the action that needs to be taken? Make it SMART!

hy is this action being given?

ho will undertake the action?

hen will the action be done / completed?

ow will it be done? Think coaching models.

Take the SMART actions you wrote in the previous slides and
create an action plan using Who, What, Why, When, How.

Goal setting

Aims and Objectives

Understand how to give constructive feedback and set
meaningful objectives for development

•

Demonstrate active listening techniques

•

State the features of constructive feedback

•

List the pitfalls when giving feedback

•

Describe coaching models for structuring feedback

•

Describe the SMART model for setting objectives

•

Demonstrate the writing of a SMART action plan

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

Any Questions?

Managing Difficult Conversations

Heather Graham

Tuesday 9 July 2024

The webinar will begin shortly

Tuesday 9 July 2024

Active Listening, Feedback

and Action Setting

The webinar will begin shortly

Aims and Objectives

Understand how to give constructive feedback and set meaningful
objectives for development

•

Demonstrate active listening techniques

•

State the features of constructive feedback

•

List the pitfalls when giving feedback

•

Describe coaching models for structuring feedback

•

Describe the SMART model for setting objectives

•

Demonstrate the writing of a SMART action plan

Active Listening

Effective communication is more than picking the right words and
engaging an audience, of one or of many. It is also about learning to
listen.

Becoming an engaged listener

To communicate effectively you don’t have to agree with
someone, or even like them! But you do have to set aside
judgement, blame and criticism in order to fully understand
them.

Active Listening makes people feel heard and understood,
which can help build positive relationships, lower stress,
promote

mental

wellbeing

and

create

productive

workplaces.

Active Listening

•Pay Attention!

•Don’t interrupt

•Show interest / Acknowledge

•Summarise / Paraphrase

•Provide Feedback

Active Listening

Active Listening

Have a Go!

Uh huh

Go on..

So what

you’re

saying is….

Sounds like

you’re

saying..

Giving Feedback

Constructive Feedback

•

Encourages reflection

•

Builds self esteem

•

Identifies effective practice

•

Promotes awareness

•

Helps identify actions

•

Brings about change

Feedback Methods

What are the features of effective feedback?

•

Feedback Sandwich

• Specific
• Meaningful
• Proactive / Goal oriented
• Future focussed
• Timely

What methods of feedback might we use?

Feedback Methods

What are the features of effective feedback?

•

Feedback Sandwich

•

Mutual Learning Approach

• Specific
• Meaningful
• Proactive / Goal oriented
• Future focussed
• Timely

What methods of feedback might we use?

•Location (Privacy)
•Timing
•Evidence base/ Examples
•Internal relationships
•Over-friendly/over-officious attitude
•Over-talking
•Lack of clear improvement messages.

Potentials Pitfalls

Coaching Models

GROW
Model

CLEAR
Model

OSKAR
Model

GROW Model

Goal

Reality

Options

Way

Forward

CLEAR Model

Contracting

Listening

Exploring

Action

Review

Establish what outcomes they want to achieve. Opening up the
discussion and establishing the scope of the coaching, Setting
ground rules for working together

Using Active Listening and empathy to help the person gain an
understanding of their situation

Help the person understand the personal impact the situation is
having on them as well as the organisational impact on the
business and colleagues

Helping the person choose a way forward and decide on their next
steps

Closing out the session with a recap and encouraging feedback
on what went well and what might work better in future coaching
sessions.

OSKAR Model

What do they want to achieve short, medium and long term as well as
from this session.

On a scale of 1 – 10 where are they in relation to this goal

What Skills or Knowledge do you already have and is there anything
similar that has worked before? What are they known for doing well?

Give positive reinforcement to positives discussed and decide on
small actions to move towards desired goal.

Review progress against the actions. This is likely to be at the start of
the next coaching session. What is better and what made that work?

Outcome

Scaling

Know-How

Affirm & Action

Review

Action Planning

Working S.M.A.R.T

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Relevant

Time based

Working S.M.A.R.T

Specific

A vague goal does not allow your employee to understand
how they can contribute to the success of the target you
want them to achieve.

A specific goal should describe an observable action,
behaviour or result

When creating a specific action ask:
• What needs to be accomplished?
• What steps need to be taken to achieve it?
• What parts of the goal are essential?

Specific

Measurable

A SMART action has criteria for measuring progress.
Without these, you will not be able to determine your
employees progress and if they are on track to reach the
goal.

When creating a measurable action ask:
• How do I know they’ve completed the action?
• What are the key indicators for progress?
• What does success look like?

Measurable

Working S.M.A.R.T

Achievable

There is no point giving someone an action they don’t
have the skills or resources to achieve, without also
supporting their development.

The goal should make them feel challenged, but be
defined well enough that they can achieve it.

When creating an achievable action ask:
• Given the available time and resources, is the action

achievable?

• What support might they need to develop the necessary

skills?

Working S.M.A.R.T

Achievable

Relevant

Actions should be relevant to the role or desired
development of the employee. They need to understand
how this goal will contribute to the business and help them
progress.

When creating a relevant action ask:
• Is the action relevant to the role, development or

aspirations of the employee?

• How will this action help the person develop or

contribute to the business goals?

Working S.M.A.R.T

Relevant

Time based

A time based action has a clear start time and a clear end
date.

For long term goals, try to split the action into monthly or
quarterly goals towards meeting the overall aim.

When creating a time based action ask:
• When do they need to accomplish this by?
• What check in points do I need to put in place to check

progress towards this goal?

Working S.M.A.R.T

Time based

Action Plan

Reduce the number of spelling and grammatical errors in written reports

S
Reduce the number of spelling and grammatical errors in written reports

M
Comparing the number of errors to previous reports

A

Easy to fix. If barriers such as Dyslexia exist, suggest strategies to support, such
as spelling and grammar check programs or speak to type software

R
Not out of the bounds of their ability / Related to the issue or development

T
A reasonable time frame in which to improve their skills

Issue: Comms logs have lots of mistakes throughout.

What is our SMART objective?

E-learning is outstanding and needs to be completed

S
pecific

M
easurable

A
chievable

R
elevant

T
imebound

Action Planning

Make it SMART!

Someone is off sick a lot

Development: Someone wants to take on additional
responsibility as a Mentor

Recruiter isn’t monitoring where people learned about
available jobs with Right at Home

Someone wants to improve their knowledge of Diabetes

Goal Setting

Bums on a Rugby Post!

Goal Setting

Bums on a Rugby Post!

hat

ho

hy

hen

o
w

Goal Setting

hat is the action that needs to be taken? Make it SMART!

hy is this action being given?

ho will undertake the action?

hen will the action be done / completed?

ow will it be done? Think coaching models.

Take the SMART actions you wrote in the previous slides and
create an action plan using Who, What, Why, When, How.

Goal setting

Aims and Objectives

Understand how to give constructive feedback and set
meaningful objectives for development

•

Demonstrate active listening techniques

•

State the features of constructive feedback

•

List the pitfalls when giving feedback

•

Describe coaching models for structuring feedback

•

Describe the SMART model for setting objectives

•

Demonstrate the writing of a SMART action plan

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

Any Questions?

Objectives

• Understand factors that make conversations difficult

• State how to plan for a difficult conversation

• List the steps that can be followed to help structure a difficult conversation

• List derailing events and how to deal with them

• Understand the links to other issues such as Wellbeing and good mental

health.

Managing Conversations

From time to time all coaches, mentors or managers will face conversations which
they anticipate will be difficult and which they may feel ill-equipped to handle.

Delaying rarely resolves the issue!

Discussion:

Think back to a conversation you have had
(or avoided!) that you considered difficult:
• What was it about?
• What made it difficult?

What makes a conversation challenging?

High
Stakes

Opposing
viewpoints

Uncertainty:

how will

the

conversation

go?

Time

pressures

Not liking
confrontation

High

emotions
involved

Managing difficult conversations

Prepare

Prior Planning prevents

poor performance!

They are so
disorganised

They are

unprofessional.

They have a poor
attitude to work

They can’t find pieces of work

when asked

They take several days to

reply to emails

They use disparaging
language to talk about

clients/colleagues to other

clients/colleagues

They are often on Social
media throughout the day

They have a high absence

rate and complain about

workload

Managing difficult conversations

‘Noticed’

‘Wondering’

Managing difficult conversations

Prepare

Introduce the conversation

Describe the issue

State the impact

Give your motivation

Derailing Events

Anger / Shouting

Upset / Crying / Taking offense

Denial

Defensiveness

Blaming / Accusing

Stonewalling

‘Wondering’

Managing difficult conversations

Prepare

Introduce the conversation

Describe the issue

State the impact

Give your motivation

Ask their thoughts/perspective

‘Noticed’

‘Wondering’

 Propose/Discuss Solutions

 Make a plan of action

Prepare

Introduce the conversation

Describe the issue

State the impact

Give your motivation

Ask their thoughts/perspective

Managing difficult conversations

• Pay attention to your delivery – tone, volume, pace

• Phrase things as neutrally as possible

• Challenge yourself to think before reacting!

• Adapt your communication style

• Practice mindful communication and active listening

Top Tips

Managing Difficult Conversations

Why difficult conversations might go
wrong!

Combat Mentality

Why difficult conversations might go
wrong!

Ego States

Why difficult conversations might go
wrong!

Combat Mentality

 Ego States

Reacting to derailing events

Rehearsing the conversation

Making assumptions and sticking to them!

Losing track of the goal

Managing Difficult Conversations

 Prepare

 Introduce the conversation

 Describe the issue

 State the impact

 Give your motivation

 Ask their thoughts/perspective

 Propose/Discuss Solutions

 Make a plan of action

Have a Go!

Talking Toolkit

Tackling issues early, before they become a major problem, helps you, your
staff and everyone!

A culture of open conversation, where difficult conversations lead to
observable improvements or specific actions can show a commitment to your
staff welfare.

Staff will feel comfortable bringing issues to the management and knowing
they will be dealt with, improving morale.

Anyone going through a difficult situation will know they can have a difficult
conversation with management and be supported.

Talking Toolkit

Objectives

• Understand factors that make conversations difficult

• State how to plan for a difficult conversation

• List the steps that can be followed to help structure a

difficult conversation

• List derailing events and how to deal with them

• Demonstrate using a structure to undertake a difficult

conversation

• Understand the links to other issues such as Wellbeing and

good mental health.

ANY QUESTIONS?

?

?

?

?
?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?
?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

Managing Difficult Conversations

Heather Graham

Tuesday 9 July 2024

The webinar will begin shortly

Objectives

• Understand factors that make conversations difficult

• State how to plan for a difficult conversation

• List the steps that can be followed to help structure a difficult conversation

• List derailing events and how to deal with them

• Understand the links to other issues such as Wellbeing and good mental

health.

Managing Conversations

From time to time all coaches, mentors or managers will face conversations which
they anticipate will be difficult and which they may feel ill-equipped to handle.

Delaying rarely resolves the issue!

Discussion:

Think back to a conversation you have had
(or avoided!) that you considered difficult:
• What was it about?
• What made it difficult?

What makes a conversation challenging?

High
Stakes

Opposing
viewpoints

Uncertainty:

how will

the

conversation

go?

Time

pressures

Not liking
confrontation

High

emotions
involved

Managing difficult conversations

Prepare

Prior Planning prevents

poor performance!

They are so
disorganised

They are

unprofessional.

They have a poor
attitude to work

They can’t find pieces of work

when asked

They take several days to

reply to emails

They use disparaging
language to talk about

clients/colleagues to other

clients/colleagues

They are often on Social
media throughout the day

They have a high absence

rate and complain about

workload

Managing difficult conversations

‘Noticed’

‘Wondering’

Managing difficult conversations

Prepare

Introduce the conversation

Describe the issue

State the impact

Give your motivation

Derailing Events

Anger / Shouting

Upset / Crying / Taking offense

Denial

Defensiveness

Blaming / Accusing

Stonewalling

‘Wondering’

Managing difficult conversations

Prepare

Introduce the conversation

Describe the issue

State the impact

Give your motivation

Ask their thoughts/perspective

‘Noticed’

‘Wondering’

 Propose/Discuss Solutions

 Make a plan of action

Prepare

Introduce the conversation

Describe the issue

State the impact

Give your motivation

Ask their thoughts/perspective

Managing difficult conversations

• Pay attention to your delivery – tone, volume, pace

• Phrase things as neutrally as possible

• Challenge yourself to think before reacting!

• Adapt your communication style

• Practice mindful communication and active listening

Top Tips

Managing Difficult Conversations

Why difficult conversations might go
wrong!

Combat Mentality

Why difficult conversations might go
wrong!

Ego States

Why difficult conversations might go
wrong!

Combat Mentality

 Ego States

Reacting to derailing events

Rehearsing the conversation

Making assumptions and sticking to them!

Losing track of the goal

Managing Difficult Conversations

 Prepare

 Introduce the conversation

 Describe the issue

 State the impact

 Give your motivation

 Ask their thoughts/perspective

 Propose/Discuss Solutions

 Make a plan of action

Have a Go!

Talking Toolkit

Tackling issues early, before they become a major problem, helps you, your
staff and everyone!

A culture of open conversation, where difficult conversations lead to
observable improvements or specific actions can show a commitment to your
staff welfare.

Staff will feel comfortable bringing issues to the management and knowing
they will be dealt with, improving morale.

Anyone going through a difficult situation will know they can have a difficult
conversation with management and be supported.

Talking Toolkit

Objectives

• Understand factors that make conversations difficult

• State how to plan for a difficult conversation

• List the steps that can be followed to help structure a

difficult conversation

• List derailing events and how to deal with them

• Demonstrate using a structure to undertake a difficult

conversation

• Understand the links to other issues such as Wellbeing and

good mental health.

ANY QUESTIONS?

?

?

?

?
?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?
?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?