Feedback done right
In the two previous posts I explained why and when feedback should be given. In this post I will write about the how—about how feedback can be done properly.
Giving feedback is actually quite simple, but we are not naturally oriented to do it right. When giving feedback, we tend to speak about the person instead of their performance, we are vague, and don’t make any suggestion of how people can improve (if that’s the case) — this makes your feedback unwelcome from the people receiving it.
Giving proper feedback is all the other way around:
- Depersonalise, by focusing on the behaviour instead of the person.
“You are a quite good/bad speaker.” VS “The presentation was/wasn’t very good.”
- Be specific
“I didn’t like your presentation” VS “I believe the story examples given in the presentation where not the best — they are hard to understand.”
- Be constructive, by focusing on the improvement.
“I think some better examples could be the stories of Hercules and Golias — they give a much concrete idea of what you are trying to transmit.”
These three short and easy guidelines make a big difference. The only hard part is remembering to apply them every time we give feedback.
There’s also other way of giving feedback that works like wonders, specially if you don’t feel comfortable giving other people directions: by asking questions.
I liked your presentation. Do you think there could be other examples that could help people understand it? Which ones?
Actually, if you would like to remember only one item from this post, I suggest you to remember this one.
Asking questions is a magical approach, because you are not giving the other person the answer — you are making her find the solution herself, and many times better than the one you were thinking.
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