The Art Of Giving Feedback - The Power Is In Your Hands
The upside is huge but get it wrong and you’ll wish you never opened your mouth.
In Never Stop Learning this week I will be covering the following 1-2-3:
One Big Thing - Giving feedback.
Two Recommendations
Podcast: Should we advocate for and end to economic growth?
Video: Finding your purpose.
My Top 3 articles of the week
And at the very end a photo from my recent trip to Cornwall, England!
One Big Thing: Giving feedback
Lets start with two rules: Feedback should be given with the best intentions and it should benefit the receiver.
We need to talk about feedback. Get it right and the benefits will be felt across your organisation or in your personal life.
Get it wrong and you’ll wish you never opened your mouth.
If you’re going to be successful in anything that you do in life you will need to be good at giving and receiving feedback. Each one has its own skill and its own pitfalls that you need to be aware of.
This week we will be covering the giving of feedback. Receiving feedback is whole other area that I will cover another week.
The basics aren’t complicated but there are a few areas you should consider before diving in. This post should give you a few areas you focus on to maximise your chance of staying in a positive place!
So, keep that in mind as we head through this post. Let’s dive in.
Have a clear (and good) reason why you’re giving feedback
Know why you are giving feedback and make it a good reason. Never give feedback out of spite.
I know you would never do this but humans can be cruel. Be nice.
Consider this situation. Maybe you’ve had a bad day. Someone getting ahead of you at work has sent out a document and you’ve immediately spotted something that they missed. Yes, this is the time to hit reply all and highlight it, Right?
No - don’t do it!
It immediately falls foul of the first rule above. You weren’t giving the feedback with the best intentions. Although it may be useful to the receiver it should not be done with a “reply all”.
The feedback needs to be given in good faith.
Get the timing right
You have to be sure the person is ready for the feedback.
Let’s use Substack as an example. Someone has just started a Substack newsletter and they are delighted to have set up their newsletter and have published their first post. They are on cloud nine. You read their post and take a peruse through their newsletter bio.
It needs a lot of work.
“Hi Jane - just had a peruse through your Substack. Mmmm, can I say that if you really want to get engagement and grow your subscribers it needs to be 100 times better than this. Happy to chat it through.”
Do not wade in and critique everything about the newsletter. This is not the time. It may all be true but now isn’t the time to do it.
Maybe as the initial adrenaline has died down you can start to pick off some of your points and help them improve.
Pick your moments.
But at the same time it needs to be timely
Although timing is important, you need to give the feedback within a reasonable timeframe.
Take this situation.
Bob presented the latest forecasts to the Board. He did a good job overall but left out one key point and presented another in a misleading way. You noted this down at the time but thought you’d bring it up at Bob’s annual review……in 6 weeks time.
Bob walks into his annual review and you raise the presentation.
Bob’s a little confused about which presentation you mean.
After a back and forth you settle on which meeting it was but both of you have forgotten the exact context of the point you were about to make.
In fact its worse than that.
Bob has since presented to two more Board meetings in the intervening time and probably made a similar mistake there.
Bob’s actually pretty annoyed that you didn’t say anything at the time and is now worried that he’s being doing it wrong since.
Don’t wait for a formal occasion for feedback.
Give positive as well as negative feedback
If someone does a good job say so!
Get in the habit of writing a short thank you email or chat message for a job well done. You will not only build morale in the team but you will reinforce that this the standard of work you are looking for.
It must be genuine though. I’ve had a manager before who over uses the word “fantastic”. Everything is “fantastic”.
Even when it’s clearly not!
This undermines any genuine feedback that you give.
You can do the feedback sandwich if you want to but be careful
People talk about the feedback sandwich.
Start with something positive, then discuss the negative. You then wrap up the conversation with something positive that ensures the discussion finishes on a positive note.
There are a few parts to this you need to be aware of:
The positive feedback needs to be genuine (see above)
You must describe the positive feedback in the same level of detail as the negative feedback.
Not only does this show you really mean it but it gives the receiver the ability to see exactly which aspects of what they did were good so they can repeat next time or develop further.
So, don’t be scared of giving feedback - you cant escape it
These approaches are based on my experience of what’s worked in past 20 years first being an analyst and then being a manager of large teams. Some people will do things differently and approach feedback very differently.
Please feel free to drop a comment below on what’s worked for you over the years.
Or maybe a feedback disaster that we can all learn from!?
Two Recommendations - what to consume this week
Kate Raworth: Donut economics and thriving in balance
If you haven’t discovered The Rest Is Politics podcast yet I suggest you give it a go. Rory Stewart and Alistair Campbell are two very clever and insightful people who have been involved for decades in British political life.
Rory sits on the Centre Right and has been a Conservative MP amongst many other roles over the years. Alistair Campbell was Prime Minister Tony Blair’s (remember him) Head of Communications and very much sits to the Centre Left of British Politics.
This brings a friendly clash of ideas in some areas but agreement in others. Generally a good listen each week.
Anyway, on to the interview with Kate Raworth.
Kate advocates for “Donut Economics” which is shorthand for living within the worlds resources. She believes we should move away from economic growth and instead aim for a “thriving” economy. The conversation is fascinating as Rory and Alistair grapple with how they could see this playing out in British politics where a party would need to effectively “campaign for a recession”.
Kate believes the world is heading for an ecological disaster. So, from that starting point it makes sense to advocate for a radical rethink of how we order our world.
The consequences for democracy, living standards and geopolitics are scary.
Simon Sinek Masterclass: the Key Steps To Finding Your Purpose
Our purpose is deep within us. Sometimes we can deviate so far from our purpose that we feel the pain of that. Initially in subtle ways but this can develop into more serious issues for our health and wellbeing.
This video goes deeper than many of the Simon Sinek Videos I’ve watched.
Top 3 articles of the week
Finding great articles on Substack can be difficult. Fear not, I have been digging deep into the discovery areas of the platform so you don’t have to.
Here are my top three posts to read this week:
17. Be Antifragile by Expanding Awareness by
ofWho will they think you are by
of ofLast week’s post
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Substack Recommendations
A big part of this newsletter is the community we are building. One of the ways we do this is through recommendations and building links between Substacks that share our values. Never Stop Learning recommends these Substacks that I suggest you check out.
And finally, here is a photo from my recent trip to Cornwall, England. Best place in the world.
The problem with Sinek’s work is that a for-profit company can have a purpose in addition to money making...but as long as profit is a goal, it will be the super-ordinate goal jealous of any peers. In other words, a non-monetary ‘why’ is never possible as the dominant motive in a capitalist organization, only in an NGO or voluntary association...and even in the latter capitalist motivations often creep in and take over. At best, the ‘why’ is a close second.
Feedback is indeed a crucial aspect of personal and professional growth, and your insights on giving feedback are spot on. I particularly appreciate your emphasis on the importance of having a genuine and positive reason for giving feedback. It's so essential to approach feedback with good intentions and kindness. Thanks for this insightful sharing Martin!