Camera Check
The Essential Skill for Delivering Corrective, Positive and Self FEEDBACK
“Quite so, Watson, you see but you do not observe”
– Sherlock Holmes, “A Scandal in Bohemia”
Feedback Mistakes
Most experts agree on what “not to do” with regard to giving feedback.
- Avoiding or delaying giving feedback
- Giving feedback when you are rushed and don’t have time to listen
- Providing feedback when you are tired, angry or hungry
- Discussing issues in a public setting
- Trying to cover too many concerns in one session
General, Conceptual Feedback
There is another type of message, that even with good intentions, can be ineffective or often create more challenges. General feedback conveys a broad description. People can, and often do, interpret the terms differently and the concept could refer to many different behaviors.
Here are some common examples used in performance and/or talent reviews, or feedback and coaching sessions:
- “Sharp elbows”
- Not a team player
- Lacks gravitas
- Negative attitude
- Too political
- Empire Builder
- Not proactive
- “Left money on the table”
- Not tough enough
- Be more of a leader, not a manager
If these phrases are paired with specific examples and linked to impact they can be very helpful. Unfortunately, even in talent reviews where the person is not there, general feedback alone can be used and accepted.
“Sharp Elbows”
Let’s take one of these examples and look at what can go wrong if used as a label alone.
- If someone gives you this feedback you get the image but you don’t have a clear idea of what you need to change or how to change.
- You might actually change the wrong behavior, e.g. decide to no longer speak up or challenge someone in meetings.
- If the organization knew the actual context they might conclude that the behavior that earned you this label was A GOOD THING. For example:
– You took over a team that had become complacent and “raised the bar” regarding acceptable performance.
– With respectful language, you pushed back, or exposed some gaps in one of your peer’s proposals.
– You were invited to give feedback to senior leaders and you did.
- Because “sharp elbows” means different things to different people, it actually can lead to the recipient disagreeing with the feedback.
Camera Check (CC) Feedback (created by Maxie Maultsby, MD)
I first learned this technique in 1978 from Dr. Maultsby, a psychiatrist at the University of Kentucky Medical School. It’s deceptively simple but among the most powerful, life-changing and in some cases lifesaving, skills I have ever acquired.
Camera Check feedback is a skill and a discipline. The skill is giving feedback that is so behaviorally specific that, “a video camera would see or hear what you are describing.” The discipline is vowing to never give feedback to anyone, including yourself, that is not camera check. With many of the people you deal with providing Camera Check feedback in a timely manner is all the coaching required. Giving this information to a motivated learner is often all they need to make positive changes.
Here are three examples from my coaching practice:
Christine
Christine was an HR leader and after 3 months in her new company, her manager gave her feedback that people were questioning her “commitment” to the company. She exploded when she got the feedback and actually she was still angry when we had our first coaching session. She said, “Marty, this is total BS! I work and travel so much that I can’t even keep a boyfriend, It’s so unfair.”
Of course, for me to be able to coach effectively, I need camera check behaviors. It turned out that this company had a very powerful, proud HR department. Christine came from a company, Ford, that also had excellent HR practices. From time to time, and I guess it was one time too many, Christine, trying to add value, would mention a method or process that she used at Ford. No one ever gave her that specific feedback but they questioned whether she was “committed” to her new company or thought Ford HR was better. For sure, that was one coaching assignment that would have been unnecessary had she received Camera Check feedback.
Doug
Doug seemed like a respectful, engaged leader, guiding his team to decent results. During his performance review, he received feedback that his team felt like he didn’t care about them. When I met with him he was confused and upset. He said, “I know in my heart and my actions that I care about the people on my team.” As the day continued, I pointed something out to him. “Doug, several times today I have mentioned something about myself and I’ve noticed that you didn’t comment or show any curiosity about what I said.” “You are right, Marty, I respect people’s privacy so I never follow up on personal comments they make.” Of course I explained to him that while his intentions were good the impact was hurting him and his team. “When good people “part the curtain” and share personal stories, they are not looking for “privacy”, they expect you to be a little curious or remember and follow-up at some point. Otherwise they feel you don’t care.” Doug was so relieved and happy to get the CC Feedback. In the weeks that followed he changed his behavior and felt even more aligned with his values and self-image.
Like Christine, no one had given him the behavioral feedback.
Mike
Mike was the SVP of Marketing for a chain of fast food restaurants, 10% of the stores company-owned, 90% owned by franchisees. He had an MBA from Harvard with a concentration in Marketing, and was on a very positive career trajectory. Recently he received feedback that he was arrogant and disrespectful. He actually wasn’t too defensive but he told me he wasn’t sure what contributed to the perception and what he needed to change. I pushed for and got several useful examples from some of his colleagues. Here is one:
The company’s franchisees were quite wealthy but many had a high school education or one or two years of college. Mike started a recent franchisee meeting saying, “Gentlemen, let me explain this new marketing program in a way you can understand.” After several examples of actual things he said, Mike committee to make changes in his language and underlying attitudes and started using the 2 Collaboration questions (see article: To Become More Authentic and Effective at Collaboration, Ask These Two Questions… To Your Self: https://martyseldman.com/2023/09/19/to-become-more-authentic-and-effective-at-collaboration-ask-these-2-questions-to-your-self/)
Practicing Camera Check
Just to reinforce a previous point, general feedback combined with Camera Check examples is effective. So how common are the situations I described with Christine, Doug, and Mike? Unfortunately at work, in our personal relationships and particularly in how we give ourselves feedback, general feedback is the norm. People are more likely to tell someone “you need to be a better listener” than to give them specific examples of when they:
– Interrupted multiple times
– Diverted the conversation from the speaker’s topic
– “Monologued” by speaking for an extended amount of time
– Multitasked while supposedly listening, not giving the speaker full attention
You are more likely to get feedback that you “have a bad attitude” or are “too negative” than to have someone notice and point that out:
– In our last meeting you made three comments. Each one started with reasons why something wouldn’t work
– When Sarah was presenting were you aware that you were rolling your eyes?
Practice 1
Take 6 examples of general feedback from page 1. Create a Camera Check behavior that would fit that term. I just gave you two instances, Listening Skills, “Too Negative” with behaviors that could match. There is no right answer (For “not a team player” there are over a dozen possibilities). The key is to meet the criteria that a camera would see or hear the behavior. A camera can see “interrupting” or “eye rolling”.
Practice 2
“Watson, you see but do not observe”
No one will ever match the fictional Sherlock Holmes but people who become skillful at Camera Check really sharpen their observation skills. They notice what people do or don’t do that drive performance and perceptions. This is why their feedback is so actionable (and often received without defensiveness). So for this practice think about anyone in your life and some of the perceptions you have about them, positive or negative. Now reflect on what exactly are the actions or nonactions that contribute to the view you have of them. You will notice that over time you become a much keener observer and you will gather useful information to pass on to people who are receptive.
Applying Camera Check
Corrective Feedback
Most of this article contains Corrective Feedback examples, i.e. situations where feedback is given to help someone IMPROVE their performance or impact. CC does this in two ways: providing specific information about what to change, and reducing defensiveness.
Positive Feedback
If we are fortunate enough to receive general positive feedback, even without CC examples, it’s still nice to hear.
“I really enjoy working with you”
“You are adding a lot of value’
“Keep up the great work”
“You are a ‘rock star’”
However, providing the CC examples has several clear advantages.
- Sincerity – Sometimes when we get general positive feedback we might question whether it is flattery or really how sincere is the message. If the other person describes the exact positive actions (CC) you are much more likely to feel seen and validated.
- Replication – Someone who gives me positive CC is helping me “analyze success”. I now know what to repeat and I’m motivated to do it.
- Share/Teach – When I learn exactly what leads to desired results I have the capacity to pass that knowledge on to others.
Self-Feedback
Every one of us gives ourselves much more feedback than we provide to anyone else in our lives. Because it is “between our ears” no one else gets to examine our skills or technique when we do it. And mostly we don’t notice how we are doing it and whether it is helping or hurting us.
Dr. Maultsby was a world-renowned psychiatrist and he had one ironclad rule for his patients and anyone else in his life: only use Camera Check feedback when you engage in self-critique.
Middle Schools/High Schools
Everyday many middle and high school students experience online bullying, being referred to as: retard, nerd, spaz, loser, wimp, fat, ugly, slut, and actually much worse. And many of them unfortunately internalize these names and labels. Many, many adults will admit to being “my own worst critic: and continue to call themselves names throughout their lives. None of those labels are Camera Check and they are the opposite of helpful. If we said them to someone else we would be a toxic bully.
Let me use an example from a movie that was released in 2023 starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus. She plays a reasonably successful writer; a writer who is intelligent enough and skillful enough to secure an agent, attract reputable publishers, and even get some of her books displayed in book store windows. Yet when she received negative or even luke-warm reviews, or her books don’t sell as well as she expected, she trots out a name from her childhood, “S*it for brains.” This is what she calls herself., So let’s challenge that feedback since it’s clearly not CC.
- It’s not true! She is incredibly intelligent and creative by any measure.
- It’s not helpful. It’s painful and it provides no information on how to improve.
The kind of Camera Check feedback that could be accurate and useful might focus on specific aspects of her writing, her choice of subject matter, or how she markets her books. A self-talk coach would also guide her to focus on and internalize her strengths (see article: Fully Identify Your Strengths and Potential: The Key to Being Confident, Bold, and Finding Your “Sweet Spot” in Life: https://martyseldman.com/2023/07/17/fully-identify-your-strengths-and-potential/), and practice the skill of Calm Self-Critique (see article: Calm Self-Critique: The Skill Set that Creates Peak Happiness AND Peak Performance: https://martyseldman.com/2023/04/12/the-skill-set-that-creates-peak-happiness-and-peak-performance/).
So a great place to start building your Camera Check skills is to use it when you talk to yourself.