Digital

Article

Communication

Giving Negative Feedback

Can Make Empathetic
Leaders Less Effective
by Ravi S. Gajendran, Emily S. Corwin, Lauren S. Simon,
Christopher C. Rosen, and Sibel Ozgen
HBR / Digital Article / Giving Negative Feedback Can Make Empathetic Leaders Less …
Effective

Giving Negative Feedback

Can Make Empathetic
Leaders Less Effective
by Ravi S. Gajendran, Emily S. Corwin, Lauren S. Simon,
Christopher C. Rosen, and Sibel Ozgen
Published on HBR.org / January 27, 2022 / Reprint H06TTM

Jonathan Knowles/Getty Images

Sharing negative feedback is a critical component of effective

leadership — but while the benefits of receiving constructive criticism
are clear, it’s less obvious how giving such feedback impacts leaders.
While some leaders enjoy giving negative feedback, one survey found
that 44% of managers find it stressful or difficult.

Copyright © 2022 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. 1

HBR / Digital Article / Giving Negative Feedback Can Make Empathetic Leaders Less …
Effective

This isn’t just about feeling a little uncomfortable. We conducted a

series of studies with nearly 500 leaders from a wide range of industries
exploring the hidden consequences of giving negative feedback. We
found that for some leaders, their effectiveness took a significant hit
immediately after they gave the feedback.

Why might this be? Our research suggests that a key factor is empathy.
While the ability to empathize is a critical leadership skill in many
contexts, we found that high-empathy leaders actually became less
effective after giving negative feedback, while low-empathy leaders
became more effective. Interestingly, prior studies have shown that
empathetic leaders are better at giving negative feedback
helpfully. Their ability to anticipate how the recipient is likely to think
and feel, and to express genuine care and compassion, make these
leaders more likely to communicate the feedback in a constructive
manner. And yet our studies demonstrated that the leaders who give
feedback that will be most beneficial to the recipient are likely to
become less effective themselves after giving it.

To better understand the factors driving this phenomenon, we asked

leaders to report their levels of distress and attentiveness after giving
negative feedback. We found that the higher they scored on standard
questionnaires designed to measure empathy, the more distressed and
inattentive they became after giving the feedback, leading them to
report that they became less effective at their jobs and less able to
inspire their teams. In a follow-up study, we also found that the more
upset the recipients of the feedback seemed to be, the worse high-
empathy leaders performed at tasks designed to measure critical
leadership skills such as time management and the ability to focus. This
makes sense: Since being more empathetic essentially makes leaders
more likely to “catch” others’ emotions, a strong negative emotional
reaction from the recipients could spill over onto the high-empathy

Copyright © 2022 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. 2

HBR / Digital Article / Giving Negative Feedback Can Make Empathetic Leaders Less …
Effective

leaders, affecting their own emotional states and thus their

performance.

Taken together, our research suggests that for more-empathetic leaders,

providing negative feedback can be a stressful, energy-depleting
experience, which in turn can compromise their subsequent
effectiveness at leadership tasks that require energy and attention. In
contrast, less empathetic leaders are less likely to take their employees’
perspectives or emotionally register how receiving harsh feedback
might make people feel bad. This means they are not as affected by the
negative emotions that employees experience when receiving negative
feedback. As a result, these leaders reported higher energy levels and, in
some cases, exhibited improved performance after giving negative
feedback — suggesting that for less empathetic leaders, giving negative
feedback can actually be an energizing experience, rather than a
depleting one.

Different Leaders Benefit from Different Forms of Support

In light of these findings, how can organizations empower leaders to

give helpful feedback while minimizing the toll it can take on their
mental state and effectiveness?

The first step is to acknowledge that high- and low-empathy leaders face
different challenges, and thus will likely benefit from different forms of
support. Importantly, while in an ideal world, we might wish for
leadership to be exclusively the domain of the highly empathetic, the
reality is that most organizations are likely to employ a mix of higher-
and lower-empathy managers and executives. Furthermore, there is
some evidence to suggest that lower levels of empathy are more
common among senior leaders than in the general population, so it’s a
relevant consideration to keep in mind when developing policies
designed to support a broad range of leaders.

Copyright © 2022 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. 3

HBR / Digital Article / Giving Negative Feedback Can Make Empathetic Leaders Less …
Effective

Strategies for higher-empathy leaders

Organizations should acknowledge the energy and performance costs of
giving negative feedback and explore strategies to minimize those costs.
For example, one approach is for leaders to intentionally carve out time
to recover after providing negative feedback. This might mean
providing this feedback before a scheduled break or at the end of the
workday to give themselves time to recuperate before taking on
important decisions or tasks. Alternatively, if taking a break is
unrealistic, leaders can focus on tasks that require less energy and
attention, since these are tasks for which their performance may be less
likely to suffer immediately after providing feedback.

Another approach is to proactively reduce the impact of giving tough

feedback by following these discussions with tasks that leaders expect to
be enjoyable or energizing, such as networking, volunteering, or
working on a passion project. This can help replenish leaders’ energy
banks, so they are better equipped to tackle the remainder of their
workday.

Strategies for lower-empathy leaders

Our research suggests that giving feedback is less likely to harm
performance for these leaders. However, prior research has shown that
more-empathetic people generally provide negative feedback in a
manner that feels more useful to recipients than less empathetic people
do. Coupled with our findings that less empathetic leaders are more
likely to be energized by giving negative feedback, this suggests that
organizations could potentially fall into a vicious cycle, in which those
who are most excited to give negative feedback are, on average, the
worst at giving it.

To address this, organizations should provide training and coaching for

lower-empathy leaders on how to be helpful and compassionate when

Copyright © 2022 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. 4

HBR / Digital Article / Giving Negative Feedback Can Make Empathetic Leaders Less …
Effective

delivering feedback. There are several specific skills and tactics that
these trainings can help leaders cultivate:

• Creating environments that are psychologically safe and oriented

toward employee growth
• Noticing their own emotions, and avoiding giving feedback while
feeling overly emotional
• Demonstrating respect for their employees and giving them time to
prepare by asking their permission and/or scheduling a dedicated
meeting for delivering feedback
• Reminding themselves and their employees that the purpose of
feedback is to help the recipient grow
• Emphasizing solutions and focusing on specific behaviors that need
improvement, rather than blaming the employee or attacking their
personality
• Inviting the recipient to participate in the problem-solving process,
rather than framing the feedback as a one-way street
• Following up after delivering the negative feedback and
acknowledging positive changes

Developing these skills and following best practices can go a long way in
helping leaders give feedback more effectively. But alongside these
efforts, our research suggests that organizations should also incorporate
training designed to help leaders recognize and manage the emotional
demands of providing negative feedback. This will not only benefit the
well-being and performance of high empathy leaders, but will also help
the leaders who are best-equipped to provide helpful feedback feel more
comfortable giving it — ultimately benefiting leaders, their employees,
and entire organizations.

Copyright © 2022 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. 5

HBR / Digital Article / Giving Negative Feedback Can Make Empathetic Leaders Less …
Effective

Ravi S. Gajendran is an associate professor and Alvah Chapman

Eminent Scholar Endowment Chair in the College of Business at
Florida International University. He is also the Department Chair of
the Global Leadership and Management Department. His research
focuses on remote work, virtual teams, communication technology,
and leadership.

Emily S. Corwin is a PhD candidate in management at the Sam M.

EC Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. She will be
joining the faculty at Bentley University as an assistant professor in
management in Summer 2022. Her research focuses on workplace
diversity, equity, & inclusion, interpersonal interactions, and
emotions at work.

Lauren S. Simon is an associate professor of management at the Sam

LS M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. Her
research focuses on leader – employee relationships, career success,
and diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace.

Christopher C. Rosen is a professor and John H. Tyson Chair in

CR Business Management in the Department of Management at the
University of Arkansas’ Sam M. Walton College of Business. His
research interests include employee well-being, motivation, and
workplace politics.

Sibel Ozgen is a PhD candidate in management at the College of

SO Business at Florida International University. Sibel will be joining the
faculty at Stevens Institute of Technology as an assistant professor of
management in Fall 2022. Her research focuses on (strategic)
leadership, technology-human interaction, and creativity &
entrepreneurship.

Copyright © 2022 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. 6