Giving Feedback to Your Boss When You're in HR

Kris Dunn
November 30, 2009 | COMMENTS

You're in HR—a partner to whomever you serve. . . . Guess what? That means you're supposed to tell people when they're messing up. For a lot of us, that's easy when they're employees and even the managers we serve in other departments. It gets trickier when we have to tell our boss that there's something rotten in Denmark related to . . . well, him or her.

If you've been faced with giving your boss needed feedback as a HR pro, it comes in two different flavors—your boss is either a HR professional or a line manager to whom you report directly. I've always found it easier to give straight feedback to a line manager to whom I reported. After all, they aren't in HR, so the people/culture related stuff you usually coach them on can easily be rationalized as, "Well, you know, that's why I've got you.”

It's harder for HR bosses to hear what you have to say. You know why—they're in HR, so they should likely be aware of what you are talking about. Except they aren't. Is anyone else uncomfortable?

But like the Discovery Channel points out nightly,  humans HR people ain't nothin' but mammals. With that in mind, here's my list of things to keep in mind once you decide to give the boss an "opportunity for improvement":

1.  You've got to give to get. Mix positive reinforcement often—it is a good practice and money in the bank when you need to make an "opportunity for improvement" withdrawal. If they've heard good stuff from you periodically, you'll automatically have credibility with the challenges you point out.

2.  Timing is everything. Financials just came out and the division missed revenue by 20%, but you've got "talk to boss" in your day planner. Don't be a sucker—kick your Franklin Covey binder across the room and live to fight another day.

3.  Don't roll someone else under the bus. Own your observation; don't say, "Johnny mentioned that you had an anger problem in the meeting.” By putting your observations on someone else, the boss wants to go tackle Johnny, not listen to you about the issue. If you've done a good job with positive feedback and being there, your boss will listen to you when you need help from him/her—even regarding the boss's own actions.

4.  Have the boss's back once in awhile. Similar to the need for positive feedback, you've got to be there to take a bullet for the boss once in awhile, or at least identify a sniper before you go into a dicey meeting. If you've been known to act like a secret service agent when needed for the boss, the boss will listen when you have something to say.

And the most important factor to consider when giving negative feedback to your boss:

5.  You're not judging them, you're their agent. No one likes to feel judged when getting negative feedback from a subordinate. Everyone likes to have an agent looking out for their corporate image. That's why you're going to lead with the following: "Susan, as you know, I'm out there making it happen, but at the same time, I'm looking out for you. That's why I have to make sure you have visibility to the fact that you shouldn't have fired that coordinator on the spot in front of 25 people.”

Be the Gladys Kravitz of the office, and the boss will hate you. Be his/her personal agent in charge of his/her corporate image, and you've got a chance to be heard and maybe, just maybe, get improvement in the area you need.

Finally, always end with the following to your boss: "You wanna hug it out? Let's hug it out.”

Reprinted with permission from Kris Dunn's blog at www.hrcapitalist.com. Dunn is vice president of HR of Daxko, a software company.