7.3: Giving and Receiving Feedback

Giving and Receiving Feedback

Giving and receiving feedback is a significant component of workplace communication. Feedback helps us understand what is considered good and what needs to be changed or improved. Feedback might look like praise for a job well done, an update on a process that isn’t working, or a message that a behavior needs to change. When operating in a healthy organization, feedback is necessary, and can often help mitigate conflicts before they arise. 

Effective feedback helps us improve and grow. Good feedback describes areas for improvement and offers ways to improve. Being able to give clear, useful feedback is an employability skill. Providing constructive feedback and celebrating achievements are two ways that feedback can serve as positive communication, motivating employees and creating positive results for your organization (Cameron, 2012).  

Types of Feedback

Praise

If you do good work, you likely want to be recognized for doing so, so in return if you see good work, recognize it.  Praising good work reinforces the worker’s drive and energy to keep working hard and striving for excellence. It also shows others what excellence is and gives incentive to strive as well. When something great has been accomplished, recognize it soon after it takes place so that it is fresh in the mind of the receiver and others. Praise specifically what is excellent and why it is excellent, so that those involved know exactly what is being recognized, and others know what to strive for. You also don’t have to wait till the end of a major project or the end of the year to say “good job;”  celebrate the little wins or improvements along the way. This can be a great way to build a positive climate within your organization. However, too frequent praise may come across as insincere or become devalued. Praising intermittently or recognizing different people or actions can help ensure that the praise does not lose value. You can also increase the value of praise when you relay it to others who deserve to know (i.e. a person’s leader or someone who has expertise in an area that would value this person’s work as well). It's also important to consider your audience. Not everyone likes to be praised in public. 

Constructive Feedback

Raising difficult issues and providing constructive feedback is hard, but necessary. The thought of these hard conversations can feel sticky and often give you a sickening feeling in the pit of your stomach. However, take a deep breath and head into these conversations with the best of intentions.  Your goal should always be to guide improvement. Here are three easy steps for giving feedback:

1. Consider the relationship. Ensure that you are the right person to provide the feedback. Have you experienced or observed the issue that needs correcting? It is also important to determine when and where to deliver the feedback (Adler, 2019). Deliver feedback privately. No one likes to feel criticized in public. Delivering feedback privately helps the person receiving the feedback maintain their dignity. Creating embarrassment or defensiveness will not help the situation move toward a solution.

2. Focus on the behavior and not the person by defining the problem clearly and providing objective, descriptive statements rather than evaluative ones (Cameron, 2012). You can use descriptive statements involving yourself rather than them. Using I language not only makes it personal, but avoids a perception of attack on the person you are raising the difficult issue with. You language may cause immediate defensiveness in the person receiving the feedback. 

Negative Example: You never show up to meetings and you’re ruining our team.

Positive Example: I’ve noticed that you’ve missed 3 of the last 6 meetings. This is impacting the team’s productivity.

3. Work toward a solution, the path forward, or describe the flawless execution if the course is amended.  If you focus on the problem, it puts pressure on the individual to solve it on their own and often leads to defensiveness.  If you focus on the solution, you show that you are willing to solve the problem with them.

How to Receive Feedback

We often feel ashamed or embarrassed when receiving feedback. Most of us have a really mean inner critic who yells at us for not being perfect. This makes it hard to listen and learn. When someone offers feedback, try to silence your inner critic so that you can benefit from the ideas and support. The following strategies will help:

1. Listen actively.

   1. • Make eye contact with the person giving you feedback

      • Take notes – you’ll forget what they said

      • Summarize what they said

2. Be respectful & professional.

   1. • Avoid arguing, defending or explaining; try to drop your defenses

      • Watch your tone, words and body language

      • Look for what’s true and what’s useful

3. Ask questions to clarify doubts and get precise details and examples.

For example:

3. 1. • Can you say more about…?

      • Can you explain that further, please?

      • What advice can you give me?

      • How can I build that skill?

      • Where could I learn more about…?

      • What do you recommend?

4. Appreciate the feedback.

   1. • See the speaker’s good intentions

      • Thank the speaker and show appreciation for their time and energy

      • Look for what’s useful in the feedback and how it can help you

5. Reflect & Grow.

   1. • Reflect on the feedback and decide your next steps:

        1. What did you learn?

        2. How will you use the feedback to improve your skills?

        3. What will you do next time?

Attribution:

Information for the ‘Why is feedback necessary?,’ ‘How to give feedback,’’How to receive feedback’ sections were modified from 

Professional Business Practice Copyright © 2021 by Lucinda Atwood is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, except where otherwise noted.

References:

Adler, R. B. (2019). Communicating at work: Strategies for success in business and the professions. (12th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.

Cameron, K. S. (2012). Positive leadership: Strategies for extraordinary performance. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Gardiner, K. (2023, August 8). How to use the Johari Window to improve leadership. PositivePsychology.com. https://positivepsychology.com/johari-window/

Renninger, L. (2020). The secret to giving great feedback [Video]. TED Talks. https://www.ted.com/talks/leeann_renninger_the_secret_to_giving_great_feedback/transcript?language=en

Wong, G. (2018, January 28). 360 Feedback #4:The Johari Window [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aF-olRMuoQ