Giving feedback is an important tool in improving your teams performance.
But like that know-it-all patronising friend you no longer speak to, so many people get it drastically wrong.
I’m going to give you 6 tips for giving feedback that will help take your team to the next level.
Tip 1: Be Genuine
First things first, the feedback’s goal has to be to help the other person. It shouldn’t be used to punish or show dominance over them. You should come from a genuine place of wanting to help them.Tip 2: Make it specific
You can give more specific feedback with this formular, What > Why > End Goal. Tell them what’s wrong, then why it’s wrong and then tell them the goal that needs to be achieved. The best leaders I’ve worked for have set me the end goal and let me figure out how to get there on my own. Bad Example: “The new landing page is terrible, show me some more examples after you’ve learnt how to design.” Good example: “I feel the lading page isn’t working, the headline text is too long and confusing. Could you show me 2 more examples that explains the value of the product to our user in one line? Thanks!”Tip 3: Make it frequent
Make sure your team has frequent feedback from you. If there isn’t anything to correct, mention something your team has done well in the past couple of days. Example, “Hey Frank, I see you’ve done a great job launching the site early, this will really help us hit our targets.” So tell them what they’ve done and what impact it will have.
Tip 4: Make it timely
Make sure your feedback about an event comes as quickly as possible, don’t leave it until your next meeting. Once some time has passed the specifics of the situation will be forgotten and the team member won’t connect it to what they have done.
Tip 5: Don’t use absolute terms
User terms like I like / I think, rather than “it is”. For example, rather than saying “This isn’t working” you can say “I think this isn’t working”.
Using “I think” or “I feel” makes it feel like an opinion and not a fact.
Bad Example
”Your presentation terrible, please try better next time.”
Good Example
“Hey, I think your presentation could be improved. I feel it was too long and didn’t engage the audience. Next time shorten it and think about how to tell a story with the data.”
Tip 6: Give ideas space to breath
When a team member presents ideas for the first time don’t dismiss them straight away. Rather than throwing them in the bin, think of a way of how to make them work.
It’s easy to dismiss ideas that on the surface don’t look like they would work. Take a step back and think about how you could make it work. You might come up with an unusual solution and it will help you stay open minded, as well as encouraging people to think through their ideas first.
Bad Example
“No, that won’t work because the sales team will never approve it”
Good example
“If we do go that route we’d have to think of a way of getting buy-in from the sales team, how could we do that?”
New Workshop
Here at Idea Bloom we’re developing a team motivated workshop. If you’d like to know more get in contact!
