Giving Effective Feedback should not be confused with Giving Praise & Criticism.

Praise/Criticism is based on personal judgments about ones performance/effort and the outcome. It is usually based on opinions or feelings and is focused on the PERSON rather than the ACTION.

Hey Dave, Great Job Today

Today is too vague. What part of the 8 hour work day did he do a great job on?

Nancy, You’re always late

Always? Really? Can you back that up? Providing proof is a conversation for another day, but be sure you are able to provide SPECIFIC examples. In this case, if the person making the statement had documented Nancy’s lateness they are able get away with saying that.

Constructive Feedback is Information Specific, Issue-Focused and Focused on Observations. Follow the following 3 Guidelines to ensure your feedback is effective.

1) Organize your content

In the first sentence you should have told the person what you are going to giving them feedback about. Then when delivering the feedback make sure it comes from you – this mean’s starting it with “I…”

Not how to do it:

Nancy, you’ve missed deadlines and your work is full of errors. We’re going to lose the Fisher account because of it.

Here’s the right way:

Nancy, our conversation today is about the report you prepared for the Fisher Account. I noticed that you put it on my desk 2 days after the assigned deadline. I had a chance to review it and found that it was full of spelling errors. The report had to be reviewed and re-done – we might lose the account over this.

Notice that the person giving feedback also told them what might happen as a result – this is important. Be sure to make the person aware of what may happen as a result of their actions. Hold them accountable.

2) Deliver it in a Manner that:

– Is Direct.

Don’t fluff the situation – get to the point, this helps alleviate any confusion.

– Avoids “Need-to” statements.

Instead of:

Dave you need to hand in reports on time and make sure you spell-check them.

you could say:

Dave, your report was handed in late with spelling errors.

– Avoids the “but…”

George, you did a great job! but we lost the account.

Wait…what? But I thought George did a great job? Putting the ‘but’ in there basically means: “Hey Sorry, I lied to you about what I said before here comes the truth. If I haven’t said it enough already BE DIRECT!

– Shows sincerity (when Positive)

Great Job Today!

doesn’t really cut it as much as

Dan, when you stepped in today to finish the presentation for Kevin, you really saved our butt! That was greatly appreciated and helped us secure the client

See what I mean?

– Is given in person

DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT, Do not give feedback through a messenger. Do it in person, live, face-to-face. Do not: send it through someone, do it over the phone, do it over an e-mail or instant messenger.

3) Give the feedback ASAP! Or ASAR.

This is done so that the event is still fresh in people’s minds. Feedback is meant to given in real-time (which is why I emphasized giving the feedback “live”). BUT! It may be important to give the feedback ASAR. As Soon As Reasonably-ready. Sometimes angers may flare, or emotions run high. Recognize that people may need time to cool-down before they are ready for a de-brief, otherwise things may be said that are later regretted.

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Now it’s your turn!

This was my first post to the Rovolution blog, I’d love to hear your constructive feedback on the design/functionality and content!

Brian

Rohan, this is really an informational piece you have here. I especially enjoyed the section about being direct, so many people these days are stuck using 'fluff' when in confrontational situations.

http://intensedebate.com/people/rohansharma rohansharma

Hey Brian! Thanks for checking out the site and I'm glad you enjoyed reading the article. It take practice before being able to be direct with people. It especially gets harder when dealing with friends (my next topic!).

Chris Salvatore

Love the new site and first post.
Chris Salvatore

Love the new site and first post.

http://intensedebate.com/people/rohansharma rohansharma

Thanks Chris! Keep checking back for more, I'm hoping to actually keep on top of this blog, and I'm not running out of topics to write about!

http://intensedebate.com/people/malcolmbastien Malcolm Bastien

Good job with everything Rohan. The post and the blog both look good (albeit a bit red).

One question I have is where are these or ideas from? Are they primarily based on personal experience or are they lessons taken from books on business communication?

http://intensedebate.com/people/rohansharma rohansharma

I'm sure you're holding back your true emotions when addressing the in-your-face red! For the time being it stays – I spent time on the recolour and want to enjoy it before I go theme hunting again.

These ideas are borrowed from the Project Management Manual I created for SIFE Ryerson last year. It was a compilation of tips/tools that I got from various sources (online/your manual from the past, etc.) but what you see in the blog with examples and all are from my experiences, with the do/do nots coming from what I have learned. Those sources gave 10-20 tips on feedback and I cut it down to the 3 that mattered and helped me. I'm sure that as I continue through the year/next year I'll add more.

http://intensedebate.com/people/malcolmbastien Malcolm Bastien

Oh ya, one more thing, you're missing out if you don't already know about another web service called Rypple that deals in getting feedback from friends and colleagues.

http://intensedebate.com/people/rohansharma Rohan Sharma

Checked it out, and Nehal (below) also gave it a good rating, I'll use for stuff in SIFE and also for the blog (in the future!) Thanks for pointing this out.

http://www.SIFEsimonfraser.com Anoop

Great stuff.

I find people often revert to the sandwich technique of hiding the bad stuff in the middle of the paragraph. Keeping feedback assertive and constructive gets the message across more effectively and gets you respect for not copping out.

Looking forward to some more great posts!

http://intensedebate.com/people/rohansharma Rohan Sharma

Thanks for the comment Anoop! You're definitely right about one thing – You get respect for not copping out. It's a hard concept for people to grasp – I know it definitely took me a while.

What you referred to "the sandwiching" is similar to the "but…" it's meant to act as a cover-up but all it can end up doing is confusing the person more, therefore killing any chance the feedback you're giving is effective!

Thanks for reading!

Nehal

Hey Rohan,

Interesting article on feedback. It's funny how a couple of words can completely change the interpretation from the perspective of the other party.

Looking forward to more of your posts!

PS: The service mentioned by Malcolm is a great resource. Rypple (https://www.rypple.com/) is an awesome service I've seen in action and it has a sleeker layout than Survey Monkey.

http://intensedebate.com/people/rohansharma Rohan Sharma

Hey Nehal! Thanks for visiting the site!

It's interesting to see not only how the words make a difference but the way they are said too! The emotions and attitude that is used when saying it can kill the choice of words – you need to say things like you mean it, otherwise people will take you less seriously. This is for both giving positive/negative feedback AND when conveying praise.

I checked out Rypple as well – thanks for the heads up! I'll be using this for anything else going forward!

Nehal

Hey Rohan,

Interesting article on feedback. It's funny how a couple of words can completely change the interpretation from the perspective of the other party.

Looking forward to more of your posts!

PS: The service mentioned by Malcolm is a great resource. Rypple (https://www.rypple.com/) is an awesome service I've seen in action and it has a sleeker layout than Survey Monkey.
http://www.dj-icykle.com dJ.icykle

my icon …ohhhhh Rohan