Mar 16
7 stories
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1. Start by working through your own emotions around giving feedback. In this piece, psychologist Nick Wignall shows you how to mentally and emotionally prepare for a tough conversation.
"Are you avoiding giving your coworker negative feedback because you don’t know how or don’t have the right skills? Or are you avoiding it because you’re anxious about them thinking badly of you afterward?"
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2. Next, remember that the point of difficult feedback is to help your team member. Here, organizational strategist Zach Montroy quickly explores a helpful quote from Brené Brown.
"We often don’t set clear expectations because we’re either afraid of micromanaging (cause who wants a micromanagy boss) or we think our team just knows our thoughts."
3. Now, prepare for and actually have the conversation. Kim Scott, co-founder of Radical Candor, Inc, walks you through paving the way, delivering the feedback, and handling the tough emotions that might come up.
"Like it or not, your ability to build trusting, human connections with the people who report directly to you will determine the quality of everything that follows."
4. Keep in mind that the more careful you can be about your words and phrasing, the better the conversation might go. In this piece, Dave Bailey, CEO at Founder Coach, breaks down the elements of nonviolent communication that he has found helpful.
"As a founder, my biggest regrets revolve around not having difficult conversations sooner."
5. If you just can't seem to find the right words, take a look at this list of helpful phrases by Claire Lew, CEO at Know Your Team.
"Hopefully, armed with these phrases, you can ease yourself into giving negative feedback more frequently and more naturally…"
6. High performers can be especially tough when it comes to difficult feedback. Vinita Bansall, founder of Techtello, shares a few strategies for these individuals.
"Everyone deserves respect and no one should be expected to tolerate bad behavior — not even from a brilliant jerk."
7. Finally, as a bit of encouragement, here's a story by someone who received some very uncomfortable feedback from his boss.
"It was the worst feedback ever, by country miles. It was a personal attack, or I felt like it. But it was also the best feedback ever. It revealed to me something I hadn’t even known to think about."
