How to give constructive feedback in the workplace

Regardless of your role, level, or industry, at some point in your career, you’ll most likely need to know how to give constructive feedback in the workplace. While this is especially true if you manage others, you might also be called on to give this feedback to peers or team members when working on projects with multiple contributors to ensure that the group’s output is ultimately successful. However, giving constructive criticism can be easier said than done – it’s something that many people find challenging, and can be tricky to do well. Here are some of the top ways to give constructive feedback in a productive, respectful way.

Giving Constructive Feedback

Establish Trust

If you are working with someone regularly and know you will at some point need to give feedback to them, whether as part of your job duties (as a manager or supervisor) or simply due to the nature of your work together (as team members or colleagues), it’s important to establish an open, trusting relationship with them. Having a baseline of trust will help set the tone of your future conversations, and will both help you deliver your feedback, and help them accept it and put your suggestions to use. It’s very difficult to accept feedback or criticism from someone you do not trust to have your best interests at heart – you want the receiver to truly know that, first and foremost, you recognize their abilities, believe in their potential, and appreciate their work. This means they’ll be more likely to view your feedback as constructive, and will further open communication channels to make this kind of exchange even easier and more productive in the future.

Balance the Positive and the Negative

When giving constructive criticism, it’s important to make sure you’re presenting a balanced perspective, whether your feedback is ultimately positive or negative. This is more obvious when it comes to negative feedback – while you shouldn’t have to feel like you must paint a picture that’s different from the reality of the situation, especially if you have major concerns about the work or behaviors being discussed, it’s helpful to be able to point out some positives in that person’s attitude or output. For example, if a specific project doesn’t meet your expectations, you could frame the conversation by saying how you’ve been impressed with the individual’s work in the past, which is why you know that this deliverable could be improved. Again, you want to be truthful – don’t mislead someone into thinking their performance is better than it actually is – but giving someone a few positives to help motivate them can go a long way.

When it comes to positive constructive criticism, you want to make sure that you give the person you’re addressing some things to think about or work on, to help them feel like they still have room to grow and surpass expectations. If a piece of work is excellent, simply providing a few suggestions, such as “have you thought about adding in information about X?” or “perhaps this point on Y could be expanded to include some of the details that emerged in last week’s meeting,” or even giving ideas on ways the project could be built upon in future work, can be very helpful. You should also tell them what it was about the work that was so good – be specific! High-performing individuals tend to like having goals to strive for, so simply telling someone something is great without giving them something new to work towards or what elements they can focus on replicating in the future can be frustrating for them.

Observe, Don’t Interpret

Don’t assign meaning or intent to someone else’s actions until you’ve had a chance to hear what they have to say. Present issues as things you are observing, and give them the opportunity to explain their perspective.

Be Specific

One of the best ways to give constructive feedback is to focus on specifics. Telling someone that their work needs improvement, but not giving details on what exactly is lacking or how it might be fixed, isn’t helpful to anyone – the individual won’t know what you’re looking for, so they’ll be frustrated and you most likely will not get the results you hoped for. Again, bringing in both positives and negatives can be key here. For example, telling someone that the structure of their presentation is strong, but is missing key information on a specific topic is a good way to help someone feel good about what they’ve done so far, and give them the specific instruction they need to bring it up to par. This goes for positive feedback, too: instead of just saying “great job” or “nice work,” give a meaningful compliment that shows that you really took the time to observe their work and that you truly appreciate their contribution.

Talk Face-to-Face

Whenever possible, it is almost always better to deliver constructive criticism in face-to-face meetings rather than via email, instant messenger, or phone. All of these technologies, while useful in other situations, are much more open to misinterpretation, because they eliminate important context such as vocal tone, body language, and emotional inflection (such as humor or concern). It’s easy to read negativity into a statement that was meant as neutral, or to dismiss the importance of an issue that has serious consequences, when you’re not talking in-person. Face-to-face conversations also are more dynamic, as both parties can ask questions and dig deeper into the issues at hand.

Don’t Make it Personal

When giving constructive criticism, it’s important to remember to distinguish a person from their actions. Focus on the issue at hand, whether it’s a pattern or performance on a specific project, without making broader claims about who they are (for example, telling someone that you noticed some errors in a recent report, so they should take the time to proofread their work going forward versus telling them that they lack attention to detail or are a careless writer). If it feels like a personal attack, the individual will be more likely to shut down and lose trust in you than to listen to what you have to say.

Provide Feedback Consistently

Obviously, frequency will vary depending on how much interaction you have with the individual you are giving constructive criticism to, but making feedback a regular part of your conversations and meetings will go a long way. That means that you will both be on the same page in terms of expectations and performance, and that when something more significant comes up performance-wise, you’ll be better prepared to deliver the necessary feedback, and they’ll be better prepared to receive it.

Be Timely

Don’t let days or weeks pass by before you give someone feedback on their work, especially when it comes to a specific project. You want the work to be fresh in both their minds and yours, so that the conversation will be relevant and actionable, and any context (such as challenges that came up during the work, what the process looked like, and ideas that emerged for future work) will still be top of mind.

About the Author

Sonya Krakoff

Sonya Krakoff is the Senior Content Marketing Specialist at Champlain College Online, where she is the voice behind the CCO blog and helps tell the school’s story across multiple digital platforms. Sonya has extensive experience in writing, content marketing, and editing for mission-driven businesses and non-profit organizations, and holds a bachelor’s degree in English (with a focus on creative writing) from St. Lawrence University.

Feedback is a tricky thing. First of all, a critique or criticism is not necessarily the same things as feedback. What separates criticism and feedback is the intent. The intention of a critique or criticism is to convey an opinion. Some critiques are negative, some positive, some articulate, and some are crass. A critique is neither wrong, nor right. It’s just an opinion. A critique would be something like, “I hated your story,” or “Your story really moved me.”

The intent behind feedback, however, is to provide corrective action based on the opinion. In this sense, feedback is neither negative, nor positive. It would be more accurate to say that feedback is either constructive, or destructive.

An example of constructive feedback would be, “I really appreciated how detailed you were with your character back stories.” An example of destructive feedback would be, “I felt your character back stories lacked detail.” In the former, the person providing the feedback gives the writer room to build on her strengths. In the latter, the person giving the feedback basically demoralized the writer.

This kind of feedback is destructive because you are focusing on what the writer did wrong, rather than helping the writer build on her strengths. You are also focused on getting the writer to write like you rather than allowing the writer to build (or construct) their own style. This is equivalent to destroying her style, and trying replacing it with yours. Maybe her style isn’t to focus on character background. Who’s to say she’s wrong?

When giving feedback, focus more on what made you connect to the work rather than what disconnected you to the work. By focusing on what you appreciated about the work, the weaknesses tend to vanish by themselves. Rather than spotlighting the person’s weaknesses, help them build on their strengths instead. Help them construct their own style.

Young B. Kim is a writer, artist, serial entrepreneur, and the creator of ideavist™. Young’s mission is to help people make their ideas happen through his writing, coaching, consultations, and through speaking engagements on ideation, creativity, and entrepreneurship.

Constructive feedback in the workplace is extremely important: workplaces need effective communication to succeed and thrive. As well as increasing staff morale, feedback helps us learn more about ourselves, our strengths and weaknesses, our behaviours, and how our actions affect others. It also increases our self-awareness and encourages personal development.

Feedback doesn’t always have to be positive. Negative feedback highlights areas where we need to improve and helps make our work much better in the long run. However, it’s important that you give feedback skilfully and productively, otherwise it provides no basis for development.

We know that giving effective, constructive feedback can be difficult, so we’ll explain how to do this and outline the main benefits of doing so. We’ll also include some examples of constructive feedback phrases for you to use in your workplace.

How to Give Effective Feedback

Giving feedback is important, but knowing how to deliver it effectively is essential. Your feedback needs to be clear, concise, and purposeful in order to be useful. Here, we explain how to deliver effective feedback and offer some constructive feedback examples.

Start with the Positive

If you need to give negative feedback, such as on a piece of work, then you should initially start with what the employee has done well. As individuals, we tend to internalise criticism much more than compliments. Therefore, when you frame a criticism positively, employees are less likely to take it personally.

Constructive feedback example

Instead of: “Your work isn’t written in line with our company voice.”

Try this: “I really like how you’ve approached this piece of work. I have identified a couple of instances where your writing doesn’t match the company voice, so please can you revisit these again.”

Be Specific

It’s important that your feedback is direct if you are to make it beneficial. Avoid making generalised evaluations about something and asking vague questions. Put as much detail into your comment as possible to make it specific and actionable.

Constructive feedback example

Instead of: “You were great!”

Try this: “I really liked the introduction you gave in your presentation on Monday.”

Instead of: “Can you make your work a bit clearer and consistent?”

Try this: “Your spreadsheet is very useful and evaluative. However, the last two columns are not as clear as the rest of your columns. Please can you make them consistent with the rest?”

Be Objective

You should always focus on factual information and justify your feedback, especially if it’s negative. Try not to base your judgment on subjective information and personal feelings and emotions.

Constructive feedback example

Instead of: “I’m not keen on how you answered that phone call.”

Try this: “I was pleased with how quickly you answered that phone call. However, next time please can you give the customer your name and ask how you can help?”

Give Actionable Advice

Giving actionable advice is incredibly important if you are going to give negative feedback. It’s pointless to criticise a piece of work if you don’t say how to improve it. You should always give pointers that the employee can work on and follow up your feedback to ensure they understand what to do.

Constructive feedback example

Instead of: “I think you could improve your public speaking.”

Try this: “Well done for speaking in front of everyone, I know it can be daunting. For next time, try to look up a little more instead of looking down at your script. I have a book you can read to help you feel more confident to do this.”

Need a Course?

Our Communication Skills Training is designed to help those working in a business environment improve their business communication skills, from holding appraisals, providing feedback, and responding to complaints to negotiating, dealing with confrontation, and being more assertive.

Make Feedback Frequent

You should always aim to give feedback frequently – don’t just wait for an annual appraisal before you let an employee know their progress. This is especially important if you’re not happy with the way an employee completed a task. If you don’t give feedback close to the time, the employee will unknowingly keep making the same errors.

Constructive feedback example

Instead of: “I’ll discuss this piece of work with you in your next monthly one-to-one.”

Try this: “I’d like to discuss this piece of work with you. Please can you let me know a time in the next few days when you’re free to discuss it?”

Communicate face-to-face

Provide feedback face-to-face where possible, rather than on messaging systems or over email. This gives the employee the chance to ask questions and makes your feedback much more genuine.

Constructive feedback example

Instead of: “I’ll email you feedback on your task.”

Try this: “I’d like to give you some feedback on your completed task. Please can you let me know a time in the next few days when you’re free to discuss it?”

Benefits of Feedback in the Workplace

There are so many advantages to giving your employees positive and negative feedback, as long as it’s communicated effectively. The benefits of using the above types of feedback are:

1. Increased motivation. If employees receive positive feedback about their work, they’ll feel appreciated and more motivated.
2. Greater performance. Employees’ work will reach a higher standard when they know their efforts are valued and when they receive feedback that highlights areas for improvement.
3. Continuous learning. Quite often, we fall into repetitive, monotonous work routines and we stop learning new things. By giving constructive and frequent feedback, particularly if it includes areas to improve, you teach employees new ways to do things.
4. Improved relationships. Employees are much more likely to come to you with problems if they know you take note of their activities. Furthermore, if you let them know when you’re happy with their work, they will likely continue to work hard to ‘not let you down’.
5. Personal growth. Both positive and negative feedback shows employees their strengths as well as areas to work on. This makes them more self-aware and provides them with invaluable opportunities for personal improvement.
6. Increased confidence. When you give your employees positive feedback, and let them know whenever they’ve done something well, you increase their confidence in their work. This makes them feel happier to come to work.

This article has explained the importance of feedback in the workplace and offered you some constructive feedback phrases to use. Feedback is extremely beneficial, so embrace both positive and negative feedback to create a more successful work environment.

Monday, July 04, 2011

By: Weston Bonnelle

Performance evaluations don’t have to be a negative experience for you or the employees but instead a constructive meeting. A tactfully written performance evaluation can produce positive results. Constructive performance evaluations give fair and comprehensive reviews of employees without adding stress, lowering morale or allowing personal bias to negatively interfere your assessments. Performance evaluations offer employees the chance recognize skills that they need to improve, communicate with their managers, reflect on their performance and get credit for their achievements. Performance evaluations also benefit the managers by allowing them to detect key patterns among employees, develop new business goals by identifying areas of needed improvement and strengthen their relationships with their employees.

Remember that before you assess your employees, you should be a good model for your employees. The better example you are to your employees the more legitimacy you gain as a manager. You will be able to use yourself as a base for expectations and standards.

For many of your employees it helps to scan their resumes to remind yourself of their past experience, skills and achievements. You can use this information to develop the appropriate expectations. If you have time, research the company’s culture or geographical location of employees that may be struggling in their current positions. An employee’s background, previous work experience and social norms from his past environment has an impact on how he views work, his perspective of professionalism and his view of your company.

Perhaps he’s accustomed to befriending his coworkers and is unhappy working in an environment were only business is discussed. Or the culture at his previous positions encouraged employees to remain distant from authority figures and consequently he feels uncomfortable ( or even threatened) speaking directly to you about projects. Either way, it’s beneficial to be aware of these issues.

List Your Thoughts on Each Employee

Over a period of time, write down any observations, noticeable behavioral patterns, improvements needed and accomplishments about each employee before structuring your performance evaluation. Write down how your employees’ workplace behavior either improves or negatively affects the company. Brainstorm your employees’ performance details, reactions to workplace events and overall attitude about work.

If you don’t spend enough time working or communicating with each employee, schedule time to be around them to increase the accuracy of your evaluation. Try to avoid putting too much emphasis on first impressions or recent events.

Complete a Chart or Checklist of Skills and Performance Criteria to Evaluate

Review your employee’s job duties and keep in mind the purpose of your company so that the skills and performance criteria designed for evaluation will be relevant. You need a strong idea of each employee’s responsibilities in order to have an honest discussion about their performance. Remember to evaluate skills that are relevant to the specific position of the employee and your business’s industry. You don’t want to crush morale by making imbalanced assessments and setting unrealistic goals. For example your customer service representative would need more social skills than your software engineer, so it would be harmful to demand that your engineers have the same disposition as your cheerful representatives. Likewise an engineering firm will have different expectations than a day care center. Afterwards, make a list comparing the employee’s performance with his job duties.

Also assess the needs of the company and the direction your company intends to grow. Compare this to each employee’s role and contributions to this ideal. Write down new job duties that complement the employee’s position. Job duties that are outdated need to eliminated or revamped because they waste the employees’ time and your money. If there are responsibilities that the employee seems to have overlooked or skills they haven’t grasped yet, take note of them to be discussed during the performance evaluation.If you are using numeral ratings, define what a one or five means.

Create a list detailing the strengths and weakness your employees. If your employees are employing good workplace habits, they need to know and be acknowledged so that they continue being productive employees. Use documents to obtain pertinent numbers such as the amount of profit produced from the employee’s concepts, workplace attributes, marketing techniques and motivational skills.

Only use constructive criticism and refrain from using a negative or malicious tone. An accusatory attitude will put employees in defensive mode. Write down detailed examples on when the employee poorly performed to provide evidence for the evaluation. Reveal how his or her performance negatively affected the company. Also be willing to admit when situations were out of the employee’s control. Write down solutions for the employee within the performance evaluation. Coach your employees on how to solve problems his or her problems. Use consistent errors to develop list of goals for your employees. Offer feasible solutions that will serve as a guide to enhance their performance.

Deviation Actions

Literature Text

A constructive comment is a comment that serves a useful purpose. For many artists, constructive comments help them improve their artwork. For others, constructive comments offer insight, depth, new perspective and more. Ultimately, constructive comments encourage critical thinking of both the artist and the commenter, and they embody our values as a group. What are ProjectComment’s Values?

For ProjectComment, a constructive comment is…

• Tailored to the artist and the art.
• Precise in summarizing your interpretation of the piece regarding the concept, meaning and more.
• Well-rounded and balanced in content, including things done well and not done well, things you like and not like, positive and negative, etc.
• Targeted for artistic improvement, with suggestions of what to improve, how to improve and why the artist should improve in this specific area.
• Justified with specific examples, evidence and explanations. This is done through ‘why’, ‘how’, ‘what’, etc.
  For example, what does this particular element create in / add to / contributes to. the piece, the subject, the concept, etc.? How and why does the element or artist do this?

Please take note that the above is to be used as a guide and basic foundation for your comment, not to be used or interpreted as the bare minimum required by ProjectComment . The above should help you expand upon your own comment. For further support, please review our Constructive Commenting: Guiding Questions (questions to consider when writing constructive comments) and Comment Hall of Fame (examples of constructive comments).

For ProjectComment, a constructive comment is not…

A line or a few lines – it is difficult to be constructive when writing so little.

An Itemized List – or any list at all.

Generic – feedback that could be applied to any artist or any art.

Useless – no insight, no depth, no improvement suggestions, no justification, etc.

Rude / Offensive / Insulting – constructive comments can be given (i.e. phrased) constructively.

Examples of Comments

The different parts (or ‘structure’) of the comment for both 6-7 Lines and 7+ Lines are as follows:

• Brief Introduction – first impressions and feelings over the artwork.
• The well-done elements – main idea, examples and explanation of what was done well.
• The points to improve – what elements could be improved and how to do so.
• Brief Conclusion – supporting message and encouragement to the artist, thus ending the comment on a positive or hopeful note.

6-7 Lines*

7+ Lines*

RED: The main idea of each point for further development later; something general to introduce your point and what you will say.

GREEN: Examples used as ‘evidence’ of the main idea, thus helping the artist to spot different elements or areas of improvement. No ‘evidence’ can cause confusion for the artist.

BLUE: Further guidance by suggesting ways to improve, specifically focusing on how. Simply stating what needs to be improved is not enough to help the artist.

PURPLE: Justification and explanation of the effect on you (the commenter/audience) by the different elements (red) and examples (green). This is important in highlighting whether the audience (you) was able to understand the artwork in terms of meaning and concept.

*Many thanks to Tuntalm for the examples.

What is Constructive Feedback?

Constructive feedback is supportive feedback given to individuals Personal Brand Our personal brand is what people see as our identity, who they see us as and what qualities and things they associate with us. It reveals to help identify solutions to areas of weakness they may have. Therefore, it comes with positive intentions and is used as a supportive communication tool to address specific issues or concerns.

Purpose of Constructive Feedback

The purpose of constructive feedback is to give feedback to an individual in a way that will lead to improvements or corrections. This is important, as it enhances personal and professional growth in individuals.

For example, constructive feedback can:

• Improve employee morale
• Reduce confusion regarding expectations and current performance
• Provide a new perspective and give valuable insight to the person receiving feedback
• Positively impact an individual’s behavior

Making Feedback Constructive

It is important to be able to differentiate between constructive feedback and destructive feedback. Destructive feedback points at faults and is a direct attack on the individual. In destructive feedback, no practical advice or supportive feedback is given.

Examples of destructive feedback include:

• “You’re wrong.”
• “That is not how you do things around here.”
• “You have no idea what you are doing.”

Here are some tips for making feedback constructive:

1. Focus on observation and not inference

Constructive feedback should relate to what you can see or hear about that person’s behavior rather than making assumptions and interpretations.

2. Focus on behavior and not the individual

Constructive feedback should be about what the individual did rather than who the individual is.

3. Focus on things that can be changed

Constructive feedback should be about things that a person can change and improve on rather than on something that is out of his/her control.

4. Provide recommendations and solutions

Constructive feedback should include a specific solution or recommendation.

Examples of Constructive Feedback

Consider the following examples of giving constructive feedback:

1. John has been an employee at your company for six months. Lately, he seems disengaged and not motivated to work.

A response can be:

• “I have noticed that you don’t seem as motivated to do work as you usually do and it makes me feel like I am doing something wrong. If there are reasons as to why you are feeling this way, I would love to talk with you about it. I think if we meet up once a week to check up on everything, you could be much happier.”

2. Michelle has been constantly showing up late for work.

A response can be:

• “When you show up late to work every day, it irritates me because it feels like you are letting our team down. The hours are 9 to 3 and when you show up late to work, it has a negative impact on our team. What do you think? From now on, I really need you to arrive to work on time and change your behavior.”

3. Carol has recently taken a more back-seat role in her position as a manager.

A response can be:

• “I noticed that you are not taking as much responsibility and initiative as you used to. It makes me feel like I have not done a good job. Did I say or do something that would make you react this way? I would love for you to address any problems or concerns you have.

How to Give Constructive Feedback

Here are five steps for giving constructive feedback:

1. State the purpose of your feedback

State what you will be talking about and why it is important.

2. Describe what you have observed and your reaction

Clearly identify the action or event and how it makes you or other members feel.

3. Give the individual an opportunity to respond

After you have stated the purpose, importance, observation, and your reaction, ask the person what they think about it.

4. Offer specific suggestions or solutions

After you hear the individual out, give input as to how the situation can be improved.

5. Summarize everything discussed

Summarize everything that was discussed to avoid any misunderstandings. Also, summarizing helps ensure that the constructive feedback was communicated efficiently.

Other Resources

Thank you for reading CFI’s guide to constructive feedback. To further enhance your knowledge and help advance your career, CFI recommends the following resources:

• Leadership Traits Leadership Traits Leadership traits refer to personal qualities that define effective leaders. Leadership refers to the ability of an individual or an organization to guide individuals, teams, or organizations toward the fulfillment of goals and objectives. Leadership plays an important function in management
• Leading by Example Leading by Example Leadership is a process in which an individual influences the behavior and attitudes of other people. Leading by example helps other people see what lies
• Listening Skills Listening Skills Having effective listening skills means being able to display interest in the topic discussed and understand the information provided. In today’s society, the ability to communicate effectively is becoming increasingly important.
• Interpersonal Skills Interpersonal Skills Interpersonal skills are the skills required to effectively communicate, interact, and work with individuals and groups. Those with good interpersonal skills are strong verbal and non-verbal communicators and are often considered to be “good with people”.

Financial Analyst Certification

Become a certified Financial Modeling and Valuation Analyst (FMVA)® FMVA® Certification Join 850,000+ students who work for companies like Amazon, J.P. Morgan, and Ferrari by completing CFI’s online financial modeling classes and training program!

Whether you’re an employee, manager, or entrepreneur, the people you work with will make mistakes at some point—and you’ll have to address them.

When you recognize an issue or problem, giving feedback is the clearest, quickest way to encourage a change in behavior. It can help a co-worker focus on the key areas he or she needs to work on. Plus, many people are motivated or inspired by well-delivered feedback, and will perform at a higher level because of it.

Your feedback doesn’t have to be limited to the people who report to you, either. It’s possible to give constructive suggestions to co-workers and even superiors, as long as you position it in a helpful, insightful way. Use this five-step model to do just that:

1. Ask for Permission

You would be surprised how much of a difference this makes. A simple “Hey, do you have a minute for some quick feedback?” can help the receiver be mentally ready for it, be it positive or negative.

2. State What You Observed

Where possible, use specific examples and avoid being judgmental. “You don’t give off a lot of energy in meetings” is not as helpful as, “In the meeting with Tina yesterday, I noticed your body language was rather passive.”

3. Explain the Impact

Point out the direct impact that resulted from this behavior, and again be as specific as possible. Saying, “When you called the meeting to an end without leaving time for discussion, it made me feel like you did not value the team’s input” or “I noticed that the clients were upset” is much more effective than “When you don’t leave time for a discussion, you look like a control freak.”

Statements like “it made me feel” and “I noticed that” are more difficult to argue with, and using those phrases will keep the feedback session from devolving into a debate.

4. Pause

When you’ve said your piece, stop. And then ask for the other person’s reaction. Give them time to think through what you’ve said and react to it.

5. Suggest Concrete Next Steps

Give a small number of actionable suggestions (ideally only one or two) that the other person can take in the future, to change this behavior. They will appreciate that you’re giving them the first step to improving the situation.

What Does Good Feedback Look Like?

Try it yourself! Practice giving feedback with a partner, or record yourself and listen to the play-back. And make sure you’re avoiding these common errors that can turn feedback into fights:

• Choose one issue at a time! Focusing on too many skills or behaviors at once is confusing and overwhelming, and can feel like an all-out attack.
• Don’t be too critical or focus too heavily on the negative. Feedback should inspire the other person to improve, not make them wallow in where they went wrong. Giving a piece of good feedback with negative feedback makes it easier to swallow.
• But don’t avoid real problems, either. If there’s an issue, don’t be afraid to state it.
• Avoid vagueness. Use specific examples, and connect those behaviors to the impact they have.
• Leave plenty of time for the recipient of your feedback to ask or answer questions and respond to what you’ve said.

Giving meaningful and constructive feedback on a regular basis is an important part of every manager’s responsibilities. Every employee deserves positive and constructive feedback to know what their strengths are and what are the areas of improvement.

While many managers find it uncomfortable to provide critical feedback to the team members, it is an important aspect of managing people. It is important to make sure the feedback is constructive and not vitriolic. This can be a very tricky task, as there is a thin line that separates feedback from criticism.

Here are seven tips to giving effective & constructive feedback.

1. Do not make it personal

While providing feedback on an issue, try to focus only on the issue and avoid reference to the person’s character. Making it personal leads to negative feelings and it makes the whole process of feedback, counterproductive. For example, if the issue is about not meeting the deadline for certain deliverables, focus on the issue of delay, without including personal remarks like “you are slow or lazy”.

2. Be specific

Another issue with feedback often is that it is vague. Many managers find it difficult to provide candid feedback for the fear of hurting the employees’ feelings. But it is important to be specific so that the employees clearly understand what is it that they need to improve on. Explain what is expected from them and where did they fall short of the expectations. Emphasise on the facts and not the feelings. Taking the same example of delay in meeting the deadline; you can emphasise on the issue by pointing out that the delay leads to other tasks getting delayed and overall project deadline getting hampered. You should avoid stating other incidents, if any, at this point and stick to the issue at hand.

3. Do it one on one

Feedback, good or bad, should always be provided one on one. The need for privacy during providing feedback cannot be emphasised enough. Making a spectacle out of the feedback session lowers the morale of not only the person receiving the feedback but also the others in the team.

4. Provide solutions

It is a good idea to include a probable solution to the problem while providing feedback. This solution can be worked out in discussion with the employee. It can be in form of an additional training, job rotation, correction of systems, or simple tips. For the employee who is not able to meet deadlines, it is a good idea to provide assistance on breaking down the task into smaller tasks and working on completing those tasks on time.

5. Listen to them

Don’t let feedback session become a one-way communication. Give the employee a chance to present their side of the story. Listening helps you understand the situation and together you can work out effective solutions. Employees take the feedback more positively if they feel they are heard. It also helps build trust and motivation.

6. Provide regular feedback

A LinkedIn Survey shows that 80% of Gen Y prefers instant feedback over annual reviews. It helps them work out the improvement plan immediately. Timely feedback helps faster resolution of issues and provides better chances of improvement.

7. Provide appreciation where it is due

Lastly, providing positive feedback or appreciation, where it is deserved, is equally important. It helps the employee realise they are on the right course and can work on improvement strategies wherever needed. It is a good strategy to keep a balance between positive & negative feedback. Going overboard on either can defeat the purpose of feedback. Learning how to provide constructive feedback to your employees will help you create a positive work e

Giving feedback to your colleagues and employees provides them with an observer’s insight into how their performance is progressing, as well as advice to solve any problems. But, for a number of people, hearing the six words, “Can I give you some feedback?” generates fear and anxiety. The words go through a translator in our brain and are heard as, “Can I completely tear you down?” It can be perceived that the person giving the feedback is somehow superior to the person receiving it, putting the receiver on the defense.

While giving and receiving feedback can be a delicate process, there’s no doubting its value in helping to identify issues and solve them. Business owners should manage feedback in a positive way so that it can do what it’s intended to do: Help improve and grow your business.

Here are five tips that can get you on track to giving productive feedback:

1. Create safety. Believe it or not, people who receive feedback apply it only about 30% of the time, according to Columbia University neuroscientist Kevin Ochsner, who cited that research at the NeuroLeadership Summit in Boston. If the person receiving the feedback doesn’t feel comfortable, this can cause the feedback to ultimately be unproductive.

If you don’t have the kind of buddy relationship with a colleague or employee that allows you to say virtually anything to each other, then I suggest you add civility and safety into your feedback approach. Don’t be mean-spirited. Your feedback usually won’t be productive if it’s focused on making the other person feel bad or make them look foolish in front of peers.

Instead, create opportunities to build confidence and skills. This is especially effective when people are expecting to be graded. Confined situations in which people know they are being evaluated are good for giving feedback while learning skills.

2. Be positive. Give at least as much positive feedback as you do negative. Positive feedback stimulates the reward centers in the brain, leaving the recipient open to taking new direction. Meanwhile, negative feedback indicates that an adjustment needs to be made and the threat response turns on and defensiveness sets in. You don’t need to avoid negative, or corrective, feedback altogether. Just make sure you follow it up with a suggested solution or outcome.

3. Be specific. People generally respond better to specific, positive direction. Avoid saying things like, “You need to be more talkative in meetings.” It’s too ambiguous and can be interpreted in a lot of personal ways. Say something specific and positive pointed at the task you want accomplished, such as, “You’re smart. I want to hear at least one opinion from you in every meeting we’re in together going forward.”

4. Be immediate. The adult brain learns best by being caught in action. If you wait three months to tell someone that his or her performance is average, he or she usually can’t grasp the changes needed in order to change direction. It’s far too ambiguous and relies on memory, which can be faulty. Productive feedback requires giving it frequently. That way, performance reviews are just another collegial discussion.

5. Be tough, not mean. When someone drops the ball at work and you have to give him or her feedback, start by asking his or her perspective on the situation. Resist saying how stupid his or her actions were, even if they were.

Next, give the objective, specific, forward-moving type of feedback I outlined earlier. Ask if he or she understands everything you expect. Inform the person that he or she is being graded and that you’re there to help him or her succeed. As the saying goes: “People have a habit of becoming what you encourage them to be, not what you nag them to be.”