How to Give Effective Feedback

How to Give Effective Feedback

• 31-10-2024
• Adapting Your Leadership Style

Delivering and receiving feedback is a critical leadership skill that goes beyond just saying what is on your mind. In this video, we explore seven principles to keep in mind when giving effective feedback.

Video transcript

All right, effective feedback. Specific improvement examples: we want to be specific no matter what it is. Give them specifics, because a lot of times they’re going to appreciate that. And do it timely. And we are looking at negative and positive feedback: “Hey Joe, I just want to thank you for coming in early yesterday. Really helped out the team.” Did you notice I said yesterday? I didn’t say “Hey Joe, I appreciate you coming in three weeks ago and helping out with the team.” By then it doesn’t matter. It’s not important. So let’s make sure that they’re very specific and timely.

And the other thing is we want to make sure that they’re factual. We definitely don’t want to put emotions in it. So make sure they’re facts. So if you’re talking to somebody about being tardy or late for work: “Hey, I noticed you were 15 minutes late yesterday.” And again, yesterday, not three weeks ago. They’re not even going to remember why they were late or what happened. We don’t want to say you were always late or “Hey, you were extremely late yesterday” because that doesn’t do us any good. We want to make sure that we’re specific about the times and everything else.

And always, R-E-S-P-E-C-T, we have to be respectful no matter what. These people that are coming to work for us and with us every day deserve respect because guess what? They are decent human beings. And they deserve that respect. And you know what? Respect given is respect earned as well. They’re going to come back and respect you for being respectful to them.

Anyone can deliver. I love this one. I can give feedback to my boss. I can give feedback to my crew. I can give feedback to my peers. I can give feedback to anybody. And it’s okay as long as I’m following this guide. Making sure it is effective. Making sure that I am being specific and I’m being respectful and I’m being timely. It’s great to be able to do that. All right. Not all feedback is positive either. And that’s part of this is, making sure that the feedback we’re giving is both. We can’t be all positive. We can’t be all negative. We have to have that mix.

And inquisitive: it’s not enough to give feedback. It’s the other half, which is the other person’s input. “Hey, George, I noticed you were 15 minutes late yesterday. Can you tell me what happened?” Inquisitive, right? I’m assuming he slept in. It could have been a flat tire. It could have been an accident on the road. It could have been the baby threw up on his work clothes. Who knows what’s going on until we ask. We always want to be inquisitive and ask why. And that gets us back from the assumptions. But when we assume… we don’t. Also be descriptive, be factual, and don’t be dramatic about it.