Giving feedback is not an easy job. More often than not, you attempt to tackle the question: how to give straightforward, clear and actionable feedback? So that the receiver could take action and increase his or her personal effectiveness.
Overthinking leads to mistakes. Here are the most common ones:
• Using misleading personal pronouns to soften things out. E.g. saying: “We have been too slow with this project” instead of saying directly: “You have been too slow with this project”.
• Using blurred words. If you are too general, you risk that the feedback receiver will not understand what you actually mean. General terms like “teamwork”, “engagement” are understood differently by various people. “It is necessary that you become more of a team-player.” May sound weird for someone who considers him- or herself a valuable team member.
• Being too soft. The person who receives feedback does not even recognize that this is feedback at all! E.g. avoid saying: “It would be nice if you thought of changing several details in the text next time.” Instead, say: “I suggest that you improve several details in the test next time, as they do not sound right. Let me show you what I mean, and tell me how you see it.”
• Being too sharp or direct. The person who receives feedback is immediately pushed into the defensive mode. When in this mode, anyone is unlikely to accept any feedback at all. E.g. avoid saying: “You did not read the brief and prepared piece of work that is completely useless for us.”
• Labelling. Never put the person receiving feedback into any category, using unfair and offensive labelling, like: “You are the know-it-all type of teammate.”
So, how to give constructive, actionable feedback?
You can choose from several simple models, we will briefly present in our next blog stories – stay tuned!
As for now, if you have several minutes to spare, we greatly recommend a valuable TED Talk by a Cognitive Psychologist, LeeAnn Renniger: The secret to giving great feedback | The Way We Work, a TED series. You will find it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtl5UrrgU8cShare your experience with us! What is the best feedback you ever received? What is the worst?