Researchers Naskar and Batley followed 331 managers at an Indian manufacturer over six rounds of performance feedback. They varied who gave the feedback and what kind of feedback it was.
Three results stand out. Managers who heard the feedback from an outside coach improved more than those who heard it from an in-house HR colleague. Feedback on development took a while to show results, and then it paid off. And the managers who started with lower scores improved most: by the sixth round they had caught up with the top performers.¹
Talent Takeaway
It reminds us to be patient with feedback: growth takes more than a quarter to show. When a message keeps getting stuck, a fresh voice can help it land. And it is encouraging to see how far people can come who start further back.
¹ Naskar, S. T., & Batley, P. N. (2025). Feedback and managerial performance: A longitudinal multilevel field experiment of feedback intervention theory. Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 44(6), 35–52. https://doi.org/10.1002/joe.22299
Further reading: Nicolau, A., Candel, O. S., Constantin, T., & Kleingeld, A. (2023). The effects of executive coaching on behaviors, attitudes, and personal characteristics. Frontiers in Psychology, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1089797
