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  • 23 Sep 2015

    60 Second Guide to Giving Feedback

    One of the most powerful tools as a manager you have to develop your staff is providing direct feedback. Giving effective feedback allows us to have a positive impact on staff performance, motivation and development. 

    Here are some useful tips when providing feedback;

    • Be specific. Use facts to clearly identify what you are giving feedback on, whilst saying thank you is good to hear, make sure you explain beyond the thank you, e.g. “Thank you for pulling together the information for that proposal, it was well presented and exactly what the client was after.”
    • Time the feedback. Give feedback as close to the time of behaviour as possible, the closer we give the feedback the fresher the process will be in your employee’s mind. If there are specifics about their actions that you need to pick up which could be improved the employee may have trouble remembering how they did something and any changes would be harder to make.
    • Focus on the behaviour, not on the individual. Focus on the quality of the outcome, not on the person.
    • Provide constructive feedback as well as positive feedback. It is good to give positive feedback so your staff feel motivated, but also ensure you feedback to the individual if there is something that they aren’t doing right. When giving constructive feedback, remember again to focus on the behaviour not on the individual. Constructive feedback should be exactly that, constructive, not destructive. Emphasise what they have done right and the areas they can improve on.
    • Provide the information needed when giving constructive feedback. Don’t provide constructive feedback by simply pointing out where they went wrong, talk them through how to do it better for next time. Allow time for them to ask questions back so they really understand how it should be done and give them the opportunity to learn.
    • Think through the reasons for giving the feedback before giving it. Ensure you are giving feedback for the right reasons.
    • Use structure to giving feedback – simple approaches like A.I.D. provide some simple structure which can be practiced:
      • A – Action: What specifically are we giving feedback about? What was the incident?
      • I – Impact: What was the impact of the action on others?
      • D – Do Differently: What could the person do differently next time?

    Feedback is a gift – but only if it‘s done properly.

Published by James Osborne September 23rd 2015

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