5 Tips for Giving Better Feedback
Last updated: August 29, 2021
Estimated reading time: 2.5 min
Google “feedback is a gift” and you’ll find enough quotes to fill a high school yearbook. While there’s the potential for that to be true, how you package and deliver it matters. To that end, here are our most important tips for giving feedback.
1. Don’t try to hide it.
这可不像把菠菜偷偷放进芒果奶昔里，让别人多吃蔬菜。你不能骗别人去接受反馈。相反，当你要给出反馈的时候要清楚，即使这意味着每次都要采用一个关键短语来开始。Examples:
- “I have some feedback on X! Can I share it?”
- “I’m concerned X isn’t on track. Can we schedule a time today to talk about it?”
2. Do systematize it.
If you’re someone who feels stressed or awkward about giving feedback, systematizing is a must. If you wait until feedback is urgent, you’ll have missed several opportunities to give it. More importantly, systematizing feedback helps mitigate bias. We tend to feel more comfortable sharing feedback with people who are like us or to whom we feel close. This means that—unless you intentionally choose otherwise—your staff who have marginalized identities that are different from yours probably receive less feedback overall. Less feedback = fewer opportunities to grow! Here are ways to systematize:
- Include it in yourcheck-in agendaso it’s just part of what you discuss each week.
- For projects, get in the habit of scheduling debriefs.
- If you’reonboarding a new staff memberor starting a new manager/staff relationship, build in giving and soliciting feedback from the start, so it becomes normal.
3. Don’t try to “soften the blow” of critical feedback with praise.
This usually comes off as insincere. Even if the praise is real, it gets lost amid the corrective feedback because people tend to overweight the negative. The one exception to this tip is if you’ve systematized giving feedback such that you give both praise and corrective feedback in the same sitting on a regular basis—if that’s the case, keep it up!
4. Do separate outcomes from effort (and recognize it!).
当结果没有达到预期时，你可以给出纠正性的反馈，同时承认付出的努力。告诉对方你很重视为将来取得更好的结果所付出的时间和精力，以及你的合作伙伴(“我知道你为这次活动付出了很大的努力。我认为注册过程花费的时间比我们预期的要长，所以让我们讨论一下我们未来如何改进。”)
5. Don’t forget tomodel receptivityto feedback.
Invite feedback from your staff, and share your own self-reflections. You can do this generally (“Is there anything I could be doing differently?”) and specifically (“I didn’t set aside enough time to prepare for X, and as a result, Y happened.”). Not only is this an opportunity to practice and model self-awareness, a growth mindset, and vulnerability, it can also help your staff be more receptive to getting feedback and more willing to share it with you.
Check out our other resources aboutfeedback:
- Give More (and Better) Feedback with CSAW
- CSAW Worksheet and Sample
- How to Give Feedback about Defensiveness
- In Praise of… Praise!
- 2×2 Feedback Form
- How to Receive Feedback (Part 1)
- How to Receive Feedback (Part 2): Power, Difference, and Inequity
- Case Study: Receiving Feedback about Power, Difference, and Inequity