Feedback As A Gift: Why Your Input Matters And How to Give Constructive Criticism

“There is no failure. Only feedback.”

Robert Allen

Being able to give and accept feedback is crucial for all the team players out there, no matter in the workplace or personal life. But today I would like to focus on sharing feedback in the working environment.

We provide feedback during 1-1 meetings (both manager–subordinate and peer-peer), after interviews, at the end of the probation period, during 360-degree feedback surveys, during regular performance appraisals.

Have you asked yourself why you really need to spend so much time on this? Because your manager asked you to? Or because you see value in providing and receiving feedback?

Question 1: What is the actual value of a feedback?

Becoming more knowledgeable, achieving higher results, making better decisions, acting smarter — that’s what it’s all about. It’s also about active listening, as well as thorough analyzing and collaborating to create new ideas and solutions.

Think about it this way. You take action as part of your work duties and get feedback to modify your next steps. If you don’t get the feedback, you may end up taking the wrong path.

So the main value of feedback is providing and receiving information about whether you are moving in the right direction, whether your way of moving is efficient enough and whether you eventually achieved your desired goals/level/dreams.

So we have agreed on the importance of feedback. Now let's make sure we know how to communicate it in the most helpful way possible.

Question 2: How to communicate your feedback in the best way?

Firstly, there are general rules for effective feedback:

1. Begin the dialog smoothly, informally, to avoid initial tension.

2. Discuss the reason and goals of the meeting (“We gathered to discuss your behavior and results for the last project iteration...”)

3. Analyze whether the set goals have been achieved (“Your goal was to increase your listening skills and as a result...”)

4. Discuss facts, concrete events, and the person’s real actions, not subjective opinions on them.

5. Clearly define the problem but focus on solutions.

6. If needed, clarify what changes in future behavior should be made.

7. Make agreements in written form so that you could check on them and decide on the next steps.

8. After some time get back to see whether the agreements were fulfilled.

Secondly, there are several techniques for providing feedback:

1. BIFF (behavior-impact-feelings-future)

• Behavior: the specific description of what the recipient of the feedback has done.
• Impact: what outcomes this behavior has had on you, colleagues, customers or performance.
• Feelings: an insight into your emotions that were caused by said behavior or its outcome.
• Future: what you expect in terms of behavior or performance

2. Stop-Start-Continue

This technique works for someone you know well and who prefers receiving direct feedback. In this case, you offer observations on:

• what the person could STOP doing,
• what the person could START doing,
• what the person could CONTINUE doing.

3. EEC (example-effect-change/congratulate)

This technique is a quick and easy way to give both positive and negative feedback.

• Example: give an example of the behavior you have observed.
• Effect: explain the effect it had — positive or negative.
• Change/Congratulate: list what you would hope they do in the future to change their behavior or congratulate them if the feedback is positive.

4. Sandwich (praise-criticism-praise)

You praise the person, then communicate constructive criticism, and after that praise him/her again. Ending with a positive message helps the person to not get hung up on negative emotions.

Thirdly, speaking of effective written feedback, we assume that:

1. It should describe events and cases supported by real facts.

2. The absence of events/cases is also considered a fact and may be mentioned as such.

3. It is possible to mention emotions, but they should be supported by facts. It is important that the message is communicated through 'I' sentences ('I’m excited about the person’s ability to get at the root of things. Here are some cases: ...'. 'I feel really angry about the person’s attitude to his work tasks. Here are some cases: ...')

4. Personal opinion is possible to mention, but only through 'I' sentences and alongside with real facts, events and cases.

5. Suggestions regarding what could be improved in the person’s performance after mentioning the facts/events/cases make the feedback even more beneficial.

6. Personal opinion and criticism not supported by facts is not constructive and should be avoided.

Question 3: How to differentiate/differ good feedback from a bad one?

Question 4: Do you still think that constructive feedback on your teammates’ work is not worth your time?

Please contact your manager, I'm sure he/she would provide you with a list of more advantages of spending your precious time on detailed feedback.

At last:

Have you ever thought that your feedback may actually be a gift of its kind?

When you receive well-thought feedback, it is as valuable as a consultation with a life coach. It allows you to look at what you are doing from a different perspective, change your actions to change your future results. And you may even change your life eventually! Rare case, but still!

These very principles may be applied to your personal life: in communication with your spouse, with your grown-up children, with your friends and other people, relationships with whom you really appreciate.