Abstract

Offering useful feedback is an art that takes practice and good humor. This effective practice focuses on providing feedback to volunteers that will not provoke a defensive response, and was shared at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service in June 2009, by Steve McCurley, VM Systems.

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Issue

Many volunteer supervisors have trouble giving effective feedback to volunteers, especially when that feedback is designed to re-direct the behavior of the volunteer more productively. Typically, inexperienced supervisors will avoid giving feedback until a number of offenses have occurred and will then overwhelm the volunteer with a litany of criticisms.  In addition, inexperienced supervisors oftentimes will word feedback in such a way that the volunteer feels personally attacked and will tend to react defensively rather than respond to the substance of the feedback.  

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Action

1.  Begin the feedback with a clear description of the behavior by the volunteer that violated organizational policies or procedures.  This description should be based on either observed facts or on reports by others of what the volunteer did or didn’t do correctly.  An example:  “You were supposed to report to your volunteer assignment at 3:00 last Tuesday and Thursday and on each occasion you were more than 30 minutes late.”  The key to this factual description is that it completely avoids any hint or conclusion about the motives or mental state of the volunteer — it simply states the behavior that was unsatisfactory.

2.  Follow this statement with an expression of disappointment that also provides encouragement to the volunteer:  “I was disturbed by this because I have always felt that you were someone we could count on.”

3.  Explain to the volunteer the negative impact of their behavior. For example, “Other volunteers are forced to cover for you when you do not show up on time; in turn taking them away from their work with clients.”

4.  Ask the volunteer for help in resolving the problem:  “What can we do to make sure that you are able to meet your commitment?”

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Context

The above method of phrasing the feedback message also requires the following:

1.  Having a set of standards that have been explained in advance to the volunteer that clearly outline his or her responsibilities and thus indicate what is acceptable behavior.  These can be provided in written policies and procedures, a position description, or during training.

2.  Engaging in a process before giving the feedback that clearly determines the negative behavior and verifies that the volunteer has no justification for engaging in the behavior; i.e., external circumstances which prevented the volunteer from getting to the assignment on time.

3.  Delivering the feedback as close to the time of the behavior as possible and dealing with a single issue or incident at a time, not multiple offenses.

4.  The ability of the person giving the feedback to treat this as a serious message to be delivered without nervous smiling, wandering off subject, or getting angry and expanding the scope of the incident.  New supervisors would do well to practice writing out and delivering the message to reduce their own nervousness.

5.  And, lastly, it benefits a supervisor to remember that feedback comes in both positive and negative forms and to focus on finding twice as many occasions for giving positive feedback.

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Citation

Steve McCurley is an internationally-known trainer and speaker in the field of effective volunteer involvement. He is currently a partner in VM Systems, a management consulting firm specializing in helping organizations improve their utilization of volunteers.

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Outcome

The primary benefits in wording feedback as suggested above include:

• Allows supervisors to follow a set pattern in developing and  delivering feedback, thus making it more likely they will stay on message.
• Makes it much less likely that the person receiving the feedback will interpret it as a personal attack and much more likely that they will understand how their behavior needs to change to comply with organizational standards.

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Related Practices

• Encouraging feedback from volunteers and staff

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