“What was the last sandwich you had? Was it with ham? Or maybe cheese? Possibly fish? Or… salami… egg… tomatoes???”
“It was actually with a lot of… bread!”
Give me a break… all sandwiches are with bread! We do not remember the bread; it is seldom memorable! We always remember what is inside. Bread looks more like the package for the actual content.
It is so with sandwich feedback! Once people receiving feedback understand what is all about (your feedback giving style) they do not care about the package. They skip the positive at the beginning expecting the bad later on. And they do not care about the end because they know you made efforts to make it look nice.
Much more effective is giving bread (meaning good, positive) with every possible occasion and serve the un-pampered truth whenever the case; but hopefully seldom. Un-pampered does not mean rude, impolite.
Giving “bread” you create a positive and trusting climate and gain what I call the right to give constructive feedback. They will swallow much softer and more meaningful the ugly when they are sure you care about them every moment.
Nicolae Iordache Iordache
Nicolae Iordache Iordache has 15 years of professional activity in the NGO sector and pharmaceutical business. Graduated as medical doctor, he holds an MBA joined degree from Case Western University, Cleveland, Ohio and CEU School of Business, Budapest, Hungary. He has more than 11 years of experience in pharmaceutical industry ranging from medical representative to senior level. His main interest is field force effectiveness and he has been consulting for pharmaceutical companies holding either global or regional leadership, both R&D and generics. Nicolae Iordache Iordache was involved in consulting projects in 14 countries, especially in CEE and Mediterranean region. Within some of the consulting projects he has trained and developed FLSMs and FFMs in skill and capability development. Iordache is a former Country Manager of Richter Gedeon in Romania and was responsible for all sales and marketing activities for the imported portfolio of the company. In this function he served as advisor, keynote speaker and chairman in several occasions at pharmaceutical industry events. Nicolae Iordache Iordache has established, and is Managing Director of, Iordacheiordache T&D, a company specializing in human performance and productivity especially in sales organizations with the aim to support highly motivated sales executives to lead effective sales teams.
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