Sharing Effective Feedback: Help Others SEE

You have an employee who works really hard, but recently, their work hasn’t been upto the mark. You feel bad about telling them this. You know that they are putting in effort but the company’s standards and your own, demand more.

How can you share feedback with them that might be useful?

Let’s start with some feedback statements that might not be helpful:

• “Your presentation skills are bad.”
• “You are a bad writer.”
• “You’re so smart!”

Surprised to see the third one up there?

Feedback, whether positive or negative, should help the other person improve.

The above statements don’t do that. This is because they are not specific, ability-focused and lack empathy.

Here’s what feedback should look like:

1. It should be Specific. When feedback is specific, people know how to proceed further. With negative feedback, they know exactly what not to do. With positive feedback, they know what they should continue doing.
2. It should be Effort-focused rather than ability-focused. Saying someone is bad or smart usually suggests something permanent about the person. When you imply something to be permanent, feedback is useless. While these statements might help you share your frustration or delight, they do not help the other person improve. Instead, use language which suggests that change is possible.
3. It should be Empathic. When you share feedback, think about how you would like to receive the same information. This will help the other person be more open. Also, think about what might be a useful resource to help the other person improve.

In short, feedback should help others SEE.

It should be Specific, Effort-focused and Empathic.

Here are some statements that are better:

• “You can improve on the visual graphics in your presentation. Use the graphics to help drive home one point in each slide.”
• “The article you sent yesterday lacked clarity. Some of the central points were hard to understand. Try using more examples.”
• “I liked how you heard the client’s question carefully, responded clearly and left space for more questions.”