Giving Effective Feedback

Make sure your feedback gets the impact it deserves by the way in which you deliver it. When properly given, feedback makes a whole lot of difference. The purpose of feedback is a sincere intention to help improve the quality of a person’s work. If delivered wrongly, the individual will know that they are receiving it for other reasons.

Remember that feedback has to be specific, not general. Instead of saying “good report”, say “the report you gave yesterday was concise, well-written, and made your points about the case very clear.”

Effective feedback also describes specific behavior, not a person or the intentions, and what changes can be made to the behavior or action. Focus on the how and the what, not the why. Asking about a person’s intentions will make him or her more defensive.

Time the feedback well and tie it closely to the event as possible.