Giving Employees Feedback – how to tackle it the right way

You don't have to be a business owner or manager to find yourself in situations where giving well structured feedback can be the difference between positive work results, or work that leaves much to the imagination where nothing is learnt. While not rocket science, there are certainly ways of giving feedback that are more effective than others, and to make sure you're helping yourself by helping your colleagues it's important to work on your feedback skills!

Here are our top four tips for giving feedback the right way:

1. Give feedback in person

Giving feedback face-to-face, as opposed to via email or phone, can make things much more personable. It also allows both parties to clarify any misunderstandings if necessary. Imagine an employee is feeling particularly swamped for time and pressure one day, then checks his or her email to discover some feedback but, worst, it’s all negative! Understandably, many people could see this approach as a personal attack, and could end up feeling overwhelmed.. Moreover, it’s much easier to make sure you convey the appropriate tone or specific examples, when you do so in person.

 2. Emotional Intelligence is crucial

When providing constructive feedback, pay particular attention to your colleague's  body language. Actively listen and be happy to hear them voice their opinion. Be willing to adapt your language or tone accordingly. If you’re giving feedback on behalf of someone else (e.g. another manager), be very careful with your choice of wording – make sure it’s delivered in a meaningful and accurate way. When discussing a mistake or a problem, be sure to first identify the issue and then ask "what do you think could have changed to gain a more desired result?" rather than jump to "what did you do wrong?" Creating any feelings of shame or blame are barriers to constructive and open feedback, and may come back to annoy you later.

 3. Choose the right time and place

This is absolutely crucial. Generally, giving feedback as soon as you can (e.g. soon after an incident occurred) is the best time to do so. There is, however, one main exception. If emotions are running high, it might be better to wait until yourself, or your recipient, has calmed down first, to ensure you remain level-headed. Otherwise, rushing to give feedback can be more detrimental than beneficial – which is far from ideal! Decide whether feedback is best given in a private or public place. Sometimes it is nice to be publicly recognized for doing something well (positive feedback). However, everyone is different so be sure to cater to individual preferences. If a particular employee doesn’t like to be drawn out in a crowd, take note. You can guarantee that if giving constructive criticism, in stark contrast, it will be much better received by an employee if you do so in a private atmosphere in order to minimize potential embarrassment for them. 

 4. Be specific, provide examples and be future-oriented

Have you ever tried to give someone feedback, be it a friend, colleague, or family member, only to get the classic response: “Give me one example of when I did that!”. If this sounds all too familiar, you won’t forget this last point. Make sure you keep your feedback specific, to avoid any confusion or uncertainty. Whether it’s good or bad news, using the STAR method is a very effective approach. That is – Situation, Task, Action, Result. For example, if your employee has been successful in a task let your employee know how their actions gained an effective result. If giving negative feedback, allow your employee to gain awareness of how to improve their actions in the future when faced with a similar situation, give them a chance to make suggestions for their own improvement. This makes your feedback more constructive than negative, and can help increase productivity, consistency, and efficiency for future projects.

Finally, don’t dwell on the past! Allow feedback to be seen as a useful strategy to improve employee performance. If you do this effectively, you will add value to your company.