Question to international users

Submitted by Vadim Loskutov
in
Manager Tools Trinity
Hi, I'm from Russia and would like to adopt most of the MT practices (not all at once though). The question is to international users (preferably from Russia:)) as to how You translate the phrases for giving the feedback - straight forward translation is a bit awkward (IMHO) and in addition to worrying about giving first feedback as per the model, prevents me from start using it. I know that these are bad reasons for not starting, however some help would really be appreciated. Do we have somewhere in the forum place for international users to share their experience? Probably I've been searching not as good as I should have:) Thanks in advance, Vadim. p.s. I'm comparitively new to the manager position (1 year) and started listening to MT podcasts from the very begining several months ago (I'm in the middle of 2007 now:))
Submitted by stephenbooth_uk on Tuesday July 22nd, 2008 5:21 am

I think you need to concentrate on the intent rather than the specific words and use the phrasing that you find comfortable and that fit into your national and corporate culture.

* Ask if it's OK to give them feedback
* Describe a behaviour
* Describe the consequences of that behaviour
* Ask what they can do differently (the new behaviour), if it's adjusting feedback.

It's that you hit each of the steps that's important, the exact phrases you use are less important so long as you get the message across.

Also, as you read through the threads on this message board you'll see a lot of comments from people who come across as confident and self assured about how hard they found the feedback model at first. I'm sure that even Mark and Mike found it difficult at first. Worries are normal and even healthy, as long as they don't stop you from proceeding.

An exercise I use when I've got to say something that I'm not sure how to phrase is to spend half an hour or so writing, editing and re-editing what I'll say. Then I go and do something else for an hour. After the hour away I go back and re-read what I wrote and re-edit if I think it needs it. Once I'm reasonably happy I find somewhere out of the way and practice saying it. Any bits I stumble over I re-edit so I don't stumble over them any more. The aim is to get something that I can get out and says what I mean to say, not to create something worthy of Tolstoy. Maybe over the next few days you could pick a few things you would like to give your directs feedback over (aim for mostly affirming) and apply this exercise to the feedback you want to give. Even if you don't ever actually give that feedback it should give you some phrases that you can recycle each time you give feedback.

Stephen

Submitted by Vadim Loskutov on Friday July 25th, 2008 1:53 am

Thanks, Stephen,

I see Your point and I understand that wording is less important than the steps. I'll continue adjusting the feedback I'm currently providing to fit the model.

It would be good to have a google maps service somewhere on the web, where registered MT members can put the flag, explaining the place where they come from accoponied with the photo:)

Vadim

Submitted by stephenbooth_uk on Friday July 25th, 2008 11:02 am

[quote="covex"]It would be good to have a google maps service somewhere on the web, where registered MT members can put the flag, explaining the place where they come from accoponied with the photo:)[/quote]

There is a site like that, called Frappr, there may be others. I've not used it myself but I've heard mixed reports about it. You can enter your location in your profile on these forums and it will be displayed along side each of your posts. I've noticed a lot of people don't seem to have done so. Whether that's due to privacy concerns, simply didn't fill those fields in or some other reason I don't know. I do think that it would be very useful if more people did at least enter their country and, in the case of countries like the US where some laws can vary between states, their state within that country. If you know where someone is you might be able to tailor an answer to their local laws and/or culture.

Stephen

Submitted by CEDRIC WATINE on Friday July 25th, 2008 12:14 pm

I recently talked to Mark about how to translate he word "Feedback" in French. Mark was interested in knowing how we worked out this problem.

I have had a hard time to find a correct word for it because there is no litteral French translation for the word feedback. So I tried with the equivalent of : remark, observation, "can I share something", etc.
Nothing seemed to work.

Finally we use ... "feedback" and it makes things more simple : when people hear "feedback", they expect the 4-step process. They even have a little smile inside because they know we are using a "tool". It is not a problem because it is the idea behind Manager Tools : changes happen slowly by repeating the feedback frequently in a soft, non "aggresive" way. A routine.

Of course, I gave my directs a complete description of what a feedback is. In writing.