How to give feedback that gets results
“Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance or a stranger.”
Franklin P Jones
Feedback is how you let colleagues know how well they are doing their work and how their behaviours are undermining or supporting their effectiveness.
Whether you are giving motivational feedback to let someone know what they did well and why it was good or you are giving developmental feedback, telling someone what needs to be changed and how to do it, feedback can be of great value or it can be harmful.
You may have experience yourself of being on the receiving end of negative and critical remarks that undermined your confidence or at least lead to you shut down to learning and resistant to making any changes.
How can you ensure you do better when you give feedback? Here are some tips that might help. Make feedback:
- Specific. Use examples of what’s working or what could be improved or done differently. “The data you gave me was accurate, clear and on time which meant I was well prepared for the meeting”
- Descriptive rather than evaluative. Talk about what you noticed, not your interpretation of what you saw. “You were slouching in your chair and looking out of the window” rather than “You weren’t interested”
- Objective. Ensure your comments are neutral and based on fact. “You have been over 10 minutes late three times this week, rather than “You’re always late!”
- Observed. Based on what you personally saw or heard.
- Balanced. Forget the “praise sandwich,” where you give a positive, a negative and a positive. So many people are familiar with it they ignore the praise and are waiting for the criticism. Do make sure that you give praise where it is due and succinct clear advice or suggestions when needed. Aim for an overall balance between the two although that won’t always be in the same conversation.
- Timely. Many people resist giving feedback because they fear it will lead to conflict and drama but putting it off until it can’t be ignored any longer is more likely to prompt this very outcome. Give feedback as close as possible to the event or behaviour being commented upon.
- Action Focused. Feedback needs to be directed towards behaviours that people can do something about rather than vague concepts or personality traits.
What do you do to ensure your feedback is constructive and effective?
What examples of poor feedback do you have?
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10 Responses to “How to give feedback that gets results”
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Really good list for people to have to hand when preparing to give feedback. Thanks Julie. One thing I have found makes feedback even more powerful, is to follow up the evidence part with some ‘consequences’ statement. So, for example, you might say – “I observed you were slouching in your chair and looking out of the window” (evidence) – “and I am concerned about what impression that may be giving to the other team members, as well as the harm it could be doing to your own reputation and professionalism” (consequences). They may of course also be good consequences in the case of positive feedback – e.f. the reason I liked what I saw was ……
My experience suggests that adding this layer makes the feedback even more compelling.
I agree with you that the ‘feedback sandwich’ has become over familiar with people waiting for the criticism in the middle. I think it is a useful model however as long as you can eliminate the ‘but’ (or equivalent word) or pregnant pause between the first piece of feedback and the middle section.
As a trainer, I believe that giving rapid specific and constructive feedback is one of the critical ways in which we promote learning.
Thank you for an interesting relevant and practical p
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A great read on something not so common to be found! Your newsletter must be very worthy and so says my first read,compelling me to subscibe to it.
I couldn’t agree more! I like your term, “praise sandwich”, for the concept of starting and ending on a “good” note. I agree that regular and timely feedback is much more meaningful than the feedback provided during annual or scheduled performance reviews. When you are providing feedback on a regular basis you can stick to the facts of the moment. I think the “praise sandwich” is still useful when feedback is scheduled and sparse because the receiver of the feedback will be hearing a lot all at once. Though beware! I had a supervisor once who actually admitted to me that she was making things up to challenge me on because she didn’t want to seem too complimentary. It made everything she said less valid. Honesty is very important when giving feedback! I offer tips on giving feedback in my blog, “Employee Performance Management: Giving Feedback to Your Employees” (http://springboard.resourcefulhr.com/?p=1676). And for anyone who wants tips on how to solicit feedback from a supervisor, see my blog, “Employee Tips for Soliciting and Receiving Feedback” (http://springboard.resourcefulhr.com/?p=1959)
Thanks so much for your comments Nancy and for your links that will undoubtedly add to the discussion and provide extra help for anyone reading this post.
Thanks for the great article. I just posted it to my fan page: http://facebook.com/cornerstone.ct
Thanks Betty. Much appreciated!
This is an excellent post and if it is typical of the quality of your writing, I am very glad I subscribed to your newsletter. All the suggestions are worthy of implementing in my communication strategy/style.
I wonder if it will be reciprocated. How can I get people to give ME feedback that produces results?
Hi Philip
Thanks for your comments. I’m glad you found the post of value. As far as generating useful feedback on your own performance, one way of doing this is to get specific. The quality of the feedback you get is determined by the quality of the questions you ask. So, think about what you want others to focus on and ask them to notice those specific aspects of your behaviour.
For example rather than asking, “what did you think about my presentation?” find someone you trust before making the presentation,tell them you are working on looking more relaxed and confident. ask them to notice what you do that supports that or undermines that development area. That way they know what to look for and can give you specific, behavioural and therefore useful feedback.
Julie