Make Your Feedback Count

Giving feedback is an essential part of any workplace or even personal relationship. It can help people grow and improve their skills and behaviours. However, it can be a challenging task, especially when it involves addressing sensitive or difficult issues or, is a new concept for the person receiving the feedback. To ensure that constructive feedback is delivered and received in a respectful and effective manner, it's essential to consider and keep in mind your WHY. Keeping in mind why you are delivering feedback in order to keep personal feelings to a minimum and just focus on the benefits that the feedback will give to an individual, a team, and anyone else affected by the outcome. However, to be fair, feedback is personal...so keep reading!

Understand the Purpose of Feedback

Before providing feedback, it's essential to understand its purpose. Feedback should be given with the intent of helping individuals improve their performance or behaviour. It should not be given to criticize or attack someone personally. By focusing on the purpose of feedback, you can create a more positive environment that encourages growth and development. So, when planning your delivery, it's essential you focus on WHY you are delivering it in the first place. This will also help you determine if it is even necessary at all.

Recognize Individual Differences

People come from different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences that influence their behaviour and reaction to feedback. When delivering feedback, it's crucial to recognize and respect these differences, avoiding assumptions or stereotypes. Consider everything you know about the individual's personality, communication style, and cultural background to tailor your approach to provide feedback that is sensitive and effective. Again, it helps to focus on the wider scenario to take out any sense of being 'attacked' for the individual you're giving feedback to. Particularly if a larger team of diverse individuals are involved.

Use the Right Language

Using the right language is critical when giving feedback, especially when it comes to sensitive or difficult issues. Avoid using judgmental language, and instead, focus on specific behaviours or actions that need improvement. Use "I" statements to express your perspective and avoid making assumptions or generalizations. Focus on the 'thing' rather than 'you did this...'. For example, instead of 'you constantly speak over people' try saying 'I'd like our meetings to reflect the teams opinions so there has to be room for everyone to express their thoughts'. You could also then ask a question such as 'can we discuss why that may not be happening?' or 'how can we improve our team meeting to ensure that happens?'. By adopting this coaching style, the individual may deliver their own feedback to themselves - that certainly makes life easier and, side bonus, the individual starts getting into the habit of self-reflection with little effort on your part!

Provide Specific Examples

When providing feedback, it's essential to provide specific examples of the behaviour or action that needs improvement. This helps the individual understand precisely what they need to work on and how they can improve. Providing examples also helps to remove any ambiguity or confusion, making the feedback more actionable. It's terribly unfair to vaguely refer to someone's behaviour sometime a few months back when they said 'something' and 'someone' was upset but you can't quite remember who. The people this hurts the most are the ones who are really trying to grow and develop! Specifics are important to the individual you are speaking to because only they know what they were feeling at the time, any influencing factors that could have triggered their behaviour, if they were completely unaware, or if there was some other context that you are unaware of. So, if you get specific they can genuinely examine 'WHY' and set about making some changes or it may be that they just develop some increased self-awareness. Also great!

Be Open to Dialogue

Feedback is a two-way conversation, and it's essential to be open to dialogue. Encourage the individual to ask questions, share their perspective, and offer suggestions. This helps to create a more collaborative environment, where both parties are working towards the same goal of improvement. You should absolutely be asking questions. This isn't always possible if you get an immediate knee-jerk reaction and the individual concerned just shuts down entirely. To have this dialogue I recommend booking some time, more than you think you need, and ideally not in a slot where the individual may have to go back into a group environment while they are upset or reflecting. Upsetting people isn't the ideal but we are human and sometimes critiques are hard to hear. Leave plenty of room, do not have a meeting booked straight after that you need to rush off to and most importantly, follow up. Everyone responds differently and you need to be available to those who go away and reflect but then need to come back with questions. Sometimes in the moment, feedback can be a lot to take in and people need a minute to digest. Be available for 'after-care'.

Conclusion

Providing feedback is an essential part of effective leadership, but it is not always easy, and it is not always well-received. Even if you try to get everything right there is always going to be someone takes feedback badly, even if you have delivered it in the most sensitive way possible. Be patient and do everything you can to follow up and make sure they have all the support they need to make any changes or improvements you have suggested. This goes a long way to buildings a trusting relationship and the conversations will only get easier.