The Right Amount of Feedback
Too much feedback is counterproductive.
You want others to do a good job. So, you provide feedback on their work.
Yet, what if your feedback is too much? You may recognize yourself in this situation:
Oliver was a freshly promoted Senior Project Manager. He was assigned as a buddy to a new colleague Marie. Marie was motivated and smart. She was picking up things quickly.
The trouble was that Oliver was choking her efforts with feedback. When she gave him something to review, he was like this:
“Overall, it’s good. I would change this, this, and that.”
She went ahead and did as he said. But in the meantime, he came back to her with some new thoughts.
“Maybe, this could work better. Let’s implement that.”
She was okay with additional ideas. But then he came back AGAIN and changed what was agreed.
“Sorry, I’ve noticed we should be doing this, as well. How about this and that.”
It wasn’t rare that Oliver delivered feedback on a meeting, then in the email, and then via chats. Marie was never sure if the final version was really the final. It was confusing.
It was just too much.
