“What is management for?” asked the front page of L’Express on November 10, 1969, when “the word and the thing that arrived from America after the war” were in their infancy in French companies. Fifty-five years later, management, its teaching and practice are everywhere. In open spaces, sport, administration, business schools, bookstores and sometimes even in places where you don’t expect it, like these training courses which offer “working on foot with a horse to strengthen cohesion teamwork and rapid decision-making. Coaching galorepopular HR gadget tools, personal development books… Never have executives been so inundated with speeches and pseudo-techniques supposed to make their jobs easier.
Like all human and social sciences, management does not necessarily lend itself to hard sciences. But the numerous research studies published over the past half century – and too often ignored by companies – shed light on which methods have proven themselves and which have not. L’Express reviews some of them. In this fourth episode, it’s time for feedback.
EPISODE 1. From Teams to WhatsApp… The damage notifications have on our concentration at work
EPISODE 2. MBTI, Disc, enneagram: the great scam of personality tests in management
EPISODE 3. Active listening, a technique that has its limits
The feedback? Astronauts swear by it. Feedback, exchanges, dialogue, this is one of the keys to success, according to these professionals who constantly report on the progress of their tasks, what has worked, what needs to be improved, to the point of evoking their moods to ensure that they are functioning. “High performance” professions, where the slightest error can prove fatal, are not the only ones full of debriefs. More and more companies are getting started, also convinced that it promotes performance and strengthens motivation. “It’s essential,” says for example Catherine Piral, human resources director of ManpowerGroup Talent Solutions France, 5,000 employees around the world, including 800 in France.
“Self-assessment is not enough, especially for novices”
Rare in the professional environment, scientific studies carried out on the subject are numerous at school or university. Carried out with students most of the time, they still give an overview of the benefit of practicing feedback. “It is one of the most powerful levers for progress, understanding, learning,” summarizes Eric Jamet, director of research in psychology at Rennes II University. Alone when faced with their tasks, it is indeed difficult for an employee to improve: “Self-evaluation is not enough, especially for novices. We are too biased, influenced by our self-esteem. We over-evaluate or we overestimate ourselves. criticizes too much, even if we have the expectations in mind”, specifies Dominique Duquesnoy, general director of PerformanSe, a company specializing in psychological tests. And to cite a study from Monash University, in Australia, published in 2013 (“The impact of emotions in feedback”, by Molloy et al.).
But not all feedback is good to give or receive: “The impact is strongly influenced by the content of the information transmitted”, notes a meta-analysis published in 2020 in the journal Frontiers. Translation: “We must not just evaluate but also break down what has been done and what can be done, if possible in context,” explains Franck Amadieu, ergonomics researcher. Managers, avoid “emotional” feedback, especially the most negative – “I’m disappointed.” Their positive equivalents – “Well done, that’s great!” – can certainly motivate, but the best thing, if we transpose the studies, would be to give frank, elaborate corrections, from manager to subordinate, and vice versa. “We need to make people think, question themselves, highlight what works, in a climate of trust,” continues Franck Amadieu. An asset to attract the new generation. “Young people are immersed in this culture and are looking for inspiring managers, mentors. They do not want an authority that is content to command and control, as may have been the case at one time,” believes Alexandre Stourbe, director from Lab RH, a think tank specializing in managerial issues.
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