Have you ever felt like the feedback you received, was unnecessary and unfair. You may have fallen victim to projection.

Given the significant number of narcissists occupying leadership positions, projection is a serious and common issue, especially, when they are giving feedback. However, projection is not only found in people with narcissistic tendencies, it happens to many people and can turn the gift of feedback into something destructive and unfair, something in between a waste of time and a destructive force.

While numerous guidelines exist for providing feedback, they often fail to adequately address the issue of projection and companies still do not pay enough attention to the effectiveness of their feedback processes. This gives projection the room to roam freely. Therefore, it is essential for companies to take more substantial steps to deal with projection and build a healthy feedback culture.

Although there are other factors that can negatively impact feedback, let’s focus on projection for now.

Understanding Projection

Projection refers to the act of projecting one’s own issues and inadequacies onto others, which occurs long before the preparation or delivery of feedback and can heavily influence one’s overall perception of other individuals and their actions.
It’s nearly impossible to provide valuable feedback when dealing with projection. All the way more, the person that is projecting, is not even aware of it. Thus, it is advisable for companies to establish a feedback system that minimizes the likelihood of projection.

How to minimize Projection

Overcoming projection can be a challenging task, depending on its severity. There are some principles that companies can adopt to effectively tackle projection in their feedback system.

ℹ️ Since feedback is primarily aimed at facilitating #growth and improvement, it’s essential to conduct regular surveys to determine its efficacy and find out if feedback is fair and provides an opportunity to grow. If not, talk to the person giving poor feedback and help them to improve.

ℹ️Erase assumptions and personal opinions from feedback. Require that feedback has to be backed up, with specific examples and clear data without exception. Moreover, feedback should be corroborated by other colleagues, and their names should be explicitly mentioned to ensure that the feedback is not construed as a solely personal opinion.

This all sounds like a lot of effort, and it surely is. A healthy feedback culture does not grow overnight.