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When I was an officer in the British RAF many years ago, I used to control supersonic Air Defence fighter aircraft. I was primarily a Fighter Controller (Intercept Controller) and Aerospace Battle Manager. Very different from Air Traffic Control (ATC) – their job is to keep aircraft apart and safe. My job as an Intercept Controller was to give Air Defence fighter aircraft tactical information to successfully intercept, identify, and/ or ‘appropriately deal with’ a target, sitting behind a radar screen in a darkened operations room. The picture above is of a rare Lightning live missile firing in a range in the North Sea off the coast of England – I was controlling the aircraft and the chase plane, and the chase-plane pilot, Ian ‘Blackie’ Black sent me the photo pictured above, now framed. I used to intercept Russian aircraft in real-time operations when I was based in the Shetland Isles in the UK (mostly Tu-95 Bears, and once a Tu-22 Backfire – updated versions are both still in active service with Russian Aerospace Forces and Naval Aviation, and have been used in the war in Ukraine and on patrols). I also used to intercept heroin smugglers in Central America. It was a high-pressure, high-performance, ‘Mach 2’ workplace environment where failure was not an option. Feedback was blunt and brutal. On a day-to-day basis, we used to do ‘practice intercepts’ with live Lightning* fighter jets ✈️✈️ controlling them in the busy airspace in the North Sea off the east of the UK. That involved getting a brief from the pilots on what they wanted to achieve, then me planning and executing the ‘sortie.’ One of my favourite ‘sorties’ was what we then called an Echo 13 Alpha (E13A). That involved 1 or more fighter aircraft being the ‘target’ ✈️and 1 or more being the intercepting ‘fighter(s)’ ✈️. I had to plan and split them a certain distance apart over the North Sea then turn them in so they flew literally straight at each other (separated by height for safety), each aircraft accelerating to over Mach 2 – over twice the speed of sound (approx. 1,326mph, 2,134kmh at 35-40,000 feet). That meant a closing speed of over Mach 4 – flying at each other at 4 x the speed of sound (approx. 2,652mph, 4,267kmh)! Things happened fast, it was full on! I then gave the fighter ✈️ tactical instructions (height, heading, speed) and target position information to enable the pilot to find and simulate a missile launch at the ‘target’. All by eye and dead-reckoning, no computer assistance in those days! On top of that, I also had to plan, work around, and ultimately avoid all the civilian airliners and other civilian aircraft in the extremely busy North Sea airspace – which seemingly always did their utmost to get in my way 🤦♂️ Obviously, a fighter jet doing Mach 2+ flashing past someone’s window seat might spill people’s drinks so I had to keep a certain distance away 😂 It was full on adrenaline. We used to do 3 or if I planned well, 4 quickfire intercepts and the whole thing was usually over in less than 30 minutes start to finish, when I handed the fighters back to ATC to take them home, usually desperately short of fuel. Feedback of course came from the pilots in real time during sorties (no shortage of that!), as well as after sorties, plus from my supervising Airspace Battle Manager (Fighter Allocator back then) and fellow Intercept Controllers working in adjacent airspace (we had to co-ordinate plans and safety). Everyone was, shall we say ‘not backwards about coming forwards’ in giving their feedback, during and after each sortie🔨😎 I can still remember the pilots calling either DCO (duty carried out/complete) or DNCO (Duty Not Carried Out/complete) over the radio at the end of a sortie, and bracing for the phone call debrief if they were ‘DNCO’! Plus, every year, I used to have to do an annual evaluation, when ADGEEB (the Air Defence Ground Environment Evaluation Board) would come and literally watch over my shoulder as I controlled my fighters, and brutally evaluate my performance. It was high pressure evaluation: ✅ or ❌ – pass or fail. And trust me, failure wasn’t an option here, either operationally or from an airspace safety point of view! It was a high-performance ‘Mach 2’ culture. Excellence was expected. If you weren’t excellent you weren’t good enough. Failure was simply not tolerated. And not always because failure also meant people could die – failure was often seen as weakness. While debriefing is something the military is generally exceptionally good at (its critical for continuous improvement), most feedback was what I call E. and D. feedback – either:
Evaluation feedback was usually pretty blunt and brutal: on a good day you were ‘clapped and cheered’ when you walked back into the crew-room after you’d screwed up! Developmental feedback was usually also swift and blunt: often a simple ‘don’t f#@!ing do that again!’ dressing down from the Fighter Allocator (any old colleagues reading this will remember ‘JC’!). You had to develop a thick skin to survive and you had to learn very quickly – mistakes were not tolerated. And mistakes were a sign of weakness. It was a great culture if you were at the top of your game, which fortunately most of us were. But It was very much a case of sink or swim. If you were struggling or needed some support, it could be very destructive. Being vulnerable and opening up about shaken self-confidence was done in private, and even then only with your most trusted friends, for fear of ridicule. Not much psychological safety around! While we managed to get through it in that high-stakes operational environment, most of the time anyway, it wasn’t particularly constructive and it left the door wide open to cronyism, abuse, and bullying from peers and bosses alike. It was especially unhelpful outside those immediate high-pressure, ‘no room for error’ operational situations, in the wider day-to-day peacetime military environment and in the Defence civilian/ APS-type environment. In those environments it’s often even more destructive, gradually dismantling and undermining people’s confidence and promoting a fear of failure and fear of admitting mistakes culture – a complete lack of psychological safety and counter-productive to the high-performance growth, learning and development cultures that we want – and need – to build. Building a psychologically safe, high-performance culture in today’s multi-generational, multi-cultural workplaces, including in high-stakes environments, needs an ethos of all-round, what I call E.D.A.R. Feedback. The E.D.A.R. Feedback Framework is a practical model much needed in our day-to-day workplaces if we want to get the best out of our people in a psychologically safe environment. It applies in all organisations, across the military, APS and civilian environments, and across wider government and corporate workplaces. What is E.D.A.R. Feedback?Good question. E.D.A.R. feedback is something to keep constantly in mind and practically apply in both giving and receiving feedback. E.D.A.R. stands for: E – Evaluation ✅ or ❌- did you or did you not meet the required standard D – Development What do you need to do to improve or do it better in the future A – Appreciation Specific thanks and acknowledgment for what you do well R – Reassurance Yes, you’re on the right track, keep going! I’m here to help if you need it. |
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In the context of our RAF Fighter Control high-stakes culture, there was a lot of high-pressure Evaluation: ✅ or ❌. However, Evaluation – ✅ or ❌ – on its own is rarely useful in a workplace and is often destructive when used in isolation. And while there was plenty of Development information in my military environment, it was often focused on what we did wrong and the threat of ‘don’t screw-up again or else’. More of a fear-based motivational environment. That mostly worked in those days because we were highly motivated to be the best – and we genuinely were ‘at the pointy-end’ where people could die if we got it wrong. Being good at what we did wasn’t optional so we made sure we worked it out for ourselves. However, it could have been better. A lot better. And more psychologically safe. Even in that ‘do or die’ high pressure environment. And the reality is most people don’t operate in that ‘do or die’, ‘failure isn’t an option’ environment. As leaders (and leaders at all levels, including leading ourselves) we need to cultivate a much more productive, constructive feedback environment. The old saying “practice makes perfect” needs a different take – we’re human, perfection very rarely happens. “Practice doesn’t make perfect – but it does make better.” That’s the mindset we want to stimulate and support, at all levels of leadership. And in leading ourselves. That happens best when there is true Developmental feedback – when people understand what they need to do, what actions they need to execute, to improve and do it better next time. FeedForward, Marshall Goldsmith aptly calls it. The ‘don’t f#@!ing do that again!’ dressing down from the Fighter Allocator might have been better phrased as “Next time plan the split better and co-ordinate with Air Traffic [Control]) earlier so you don’t end up having to take avoiding action on an airliner!” Even better is to take a Coaching Leadership approach and ask: “What do you think you need to do differently next time?” to get the person to come up with their own self-analysis and solutions. That’s also a question we can ask ourselves – self-leadership in action. What about the A. R. aspects of E.D.A.R.?While the Evaluation and Development aspects are critical in giving and receiving feedback, the A. and R. aspects – Appreciation and Reassurance elements are just as important – but often left out. Appreciation: Positive, genuine, specific feedback on what someone’s done/doing well. And self-acknowledgement of what you’ve done/ are doing well. Reassurance: You’re going well, you’re on the right track, keep going! It also includes the message ‘I’m here if you need support, I’ve got your back’. Both A. and R. are critical components if you want to create a truly engaged, positively motivated and high-performing team environment – in the workplace and at home. If we want psychologically safe, genuinely high performing teams (which I think we all do!) we need to focus on building more Appreciation and Reassurance. Building in more Appreciation and Reassurance boosts people’s confidence, and promotes a culture of support, development, learning, and growth. It also makes us feel good, which helps our mental health and wellbeing. As humans, we need Appreciation and Reassurance even more so in today’s multi-generational, high-expectation, ‘Mach 2’ workplaces, where constant change and ever-increasing workloads are bearing down on us like a pair of Lightnings at a closing speed of Mach 4! We’re all human. We all have a brain. And our brains thrive on Appreciation and Reassurance. A. and R. primarily trigger dopamine, the reward neurotransmitter, which tells us to ‘do more of that because it feels good’. We are then in more of a reward/toward brain state, and become more engaged and motivated to take action. As a result of plenty of balanced Appreciation and Reassurance in our lives (work and home), we grow stronger neuronal pathways – deeper learning and stronger habits, so the learning sticks better. Hebbs’ Law – neurons that fire together wire together…stronger learning and action pathways. Appreciation and Reassurance are critical to that process. A. and R. feedback also produce oxytocin, the ‘bonding’ hormone and neurotransmitter – so we feel more a part of the team and a positive culture and are more collaborative and engaged. Not only are people more engaged when you have a strong Appreciation and Reassurance culture, you build a much more productive and effective Evaluation and Development culture. Back in my RAF days, we had a new leader posted in who not only doubled down on the FeedForward aspects of Developmental feedback, he also added in more of that rare Appreciation and Reassurance. It was a whole new levelling-up of high-performance – multiple levels, in fact! However, in many workplaces those Appreciation and Reassurance elements are often ignored, forgotten, or simply deemed not necessary or a luxury, ‘nice-to-have’ if we have time. Appreciation and Reassurance are nearly always the first things to drop off the radar when the pressure is on and time is short…which is ever-increasingly the case in today’s ‘Mach 2’ workplaces! “I haven’t got time for it. I’m sure people know when they’re doing a good job, I don’t need to tell them.” “We don’t need that warm and fluffy stuff here! People should know when they’re doing a good job!” “If you’re not getting bad feedback, you’re doing a good job”. Experience from thousands of hours of coaching demonstrate that unfortunately the above☝️ are too often the prevailing attitudes in many workplaces today – across military, civilian, government and corporate organisations. And it’s unfortunately becoming more commonplace in workplaces these days as the pace and complexity of work accelerates. When there is a lack of Appreciation people tend to feel “you’re always telling me what I do wrong, you’re never telling me what I do well.” A lack of Reassurance means people feel a constant un-nerving, nagging uncertainty hanging over their heads, hoping they’re on the right track and doing a good job but not really knowing as they’re not getting the Reassurance feedback regularly enough – or not at all. “Half the time I’m flying blind, I’m never really sure if this is what I’m supposed to be doing, I just get on with it and hope it’s right.” We’re human. The lack of Appreciation and Reassurance feeds the feeling of focusing on ‘what’s not right’. The message heard is “you’re not good enough”. It feeds the uncertainty – ‘am I doing it right?’, ‘I don’t know if I’m doing a good job’… And all that erodes people’s confidence… Slowly at first, then it accelerates. Even the most resilient of us can start to disengage. Even the best of us start to doubt. Then we start to dial back the effort – why bother? Nothing’s ever good enough… ‘Nothing I do is appreciated.’ ‘Nobody notices what I do well.’ ‘I deserve better than that, stuff it! I’ll leave and look for somewhere I’ll be appreciated.’ Or worse – ‘I’ll stay and do the absolute bare minimum I have to.’ Plummeting productivity. The busier people get, the more stressed and overworked leaders and managers are, the more the tendency to E. and D. feedback and even less Appreciation and Reassurance – “haven’t got time for that”. Or at best A. and D. are added as a token as a bit of an afterthought – a mumbled “oh, and thanks for that…” at the end of a meeting or call – if we’re lucky. However, when you balance E. and D. with plenty of genuine, specific Appreciation and Reassurance feedback, people start to feel genuinely appreciated. Uncertainty drops, clarity and performance grow. People feel seen. They feel heard. They feel they matter. They feel they are important. They feel they make a difference. They feel they’re on the right track. They feel someone actually cares. All critical factors in people engagement and psychological safety. Productivity and engagement go up! And, because people feel more appreciated and less threatened by uncertainty, they’re then much more open to the E. and D. feedback – because they feel psychologically safe enough to listen, learn and grow rather than trying to defend their position. So, start ‘Catching People Doing Something Right’ – regularly tell people what you Appreciate, and regularly Reassure them that they’re on the right track, that they’re doing the right things and are doing them well! And that you have their backs. Make sure you’re specific about what they’re doing well, and what they’re doing to be on the right track. And be genuine. People will then become more open to hearing the Evaluation and Development sides of the conversation – and actually learning from it rather than getting defensive. You’ll build a Growth Mindset culture where people feel acknowledged for what they do well and are more open to hearing what they didn’t do well, take it on board, and make more effort to develop and learn from it. So, when you’re thinking about feedback to give to your team, make sure you’re stopping to consider all the E.D.A.R. aspects of feedback – and particularly increase the Appreciation and Reassurance. Our popular and proven neuroscience-based Giving and Receiving Feedback and Difficult Conversations training takes people through the E.D.A.R. giving and receiving feedback model, and more. It gives managers, leaders and their teams the practical skills they need to give and receive effective feedback, including explaining the neuroscience of why feedback is so difficult, and what you can do about it. We’ve had independent global benchmarking of our program that demonstrated a 26% increase in productivity, according to managers who were surveyed 9-12 months AFTER delivery of our Giving and Receiving Feedback program.
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