Getting Unstuck: Giving Candid and Compassionate Feedback – an Interview with Educators Joe Jones and T.J. Vari
“Feedback is a psychological construct. And it’s also a skill. Honesty is not, candor is. And so being candid is something we can practice.”
What does it mean to provide candid and compassionate feedback? Why is this “ying” and “yang” of helping staff to improve so important? We’ll get answers to these questions and others from two highly experienced and dedicated educators — prolific authors, bloggers and podcasters, Joe Jones and T.J. Vari.
“Candor has to be seen as a way as a way that we treat our friends, family and colleagues. And second, it's something that we need to practice. And we need to practice often. And if we're not good at it, we can admit that. And we can say to people, I’m practicing being candid today.”
— Joe Jones and T.J. Vari
10 Take-aways from the interview
Don’t just come up with a problem; suggest pathways that might solve it.
The hyper-Federal focus on assessment is actually derailing or slowing down the shift from the acquisition of core knowledge to the acquisition and demonstration of skills in solving real world problems.
Education today is increasingly about “agency” – helping students recognize their own strengths and weaknesses, and understand and advocate for themselves so that they’re comfortable stepping into a problem and having the confidence to solve it.
We have to find those moments in which we can pivot and let students really develop their problem-solving skills from several several standpoints, and then figure out what to do next.
Teachers need to have a personal “why” that is connected to the district “why” because when they are so connected, they’re energized, and when they’re energized, students are energized.
Self-governance, self leadership comes first. Self-governance is the willingness and ability to change the course of a culture within a culture that's typically unwilling to change.
Being candid isn’t about being honest because you should always be honest; being candid is about being direct.
In terms of giving feedback, if you're compassionate, you’re candid, and when you're being candid, you're being compassionate – you’re caring. If you're going to sit down with an employee, and you're going to coach them, it's not about just telling them what they need to improve. It's also coaching them on how to improve. And that's the compassionate piece – the caring piece – understanding that you’re working with people for their benefit and the benefit of students.
If you want to fix anything in the long term, you have to give the person you’re coaching the opportunity to do the fixing.
Questioning techniques need to be genuine about things that we don't know or didn't see. Don’t ask questions where you already know the answer and where you’re just trying to get the person to your answer.
Think About It
If you’re in a leadership position, where are you on the spectrum of giving candid and compassionate feedback? Is it a non-routine, a struggle? Or is it something with which you’re truly comfortable? If it’s the former, what step might you take to improve?
If you’re sitting on the opposite side of the table, what is the most effective feedback you’ve received and when? The least effective? How did that ineffective feedback impact you?
For More Information
Candid and Compassionate Feedback