You’re sitting in your office and in five minutes, you’re about to give an employee feedback. This will be the second meeting and the first one didn’t go so well and you’re feeling nervous. You’re trying to figure out “Why didn’t John change his behavior, why is he still doing basically the same thing?”
Giving feedback can be no easy task, there are a few variables to consider. One consideration that may come to mind is, ‘how can I deliver clear feedback in a way that will improve my employee’s performance and development?’Another consideration is ‘will the receiver understand what action to take to make an improvement?’
An Underlying Problem
Showing someone a faster way to complete a task is pretty straight forward. But that doesn’t necessarily enable them to learn. Instead, we attempt to provide feedback but tend to be subjective and non-specific which can confuse the employee. If we deliver it without structure and intention, it can make matters worse.
A recent article in the Harvard Business Review called ‘The Feedback Fallacy’ discusses how “Feedback is more distortion than truth” and in order to share a more objective piece of feedback, managers need to share their perception of what happened and the impact it made on them.
This variable makes receiving feedback extremely difficult. Often there isn’t enough clarity around what we want our employees to stop doing and start doing. In addition, people can get really tense when it comes to constructive feedback. Scientists have learned that when we give negative feedback our “fight or flight” system is activated, which shuts down people’s ability to listen and learn.
Knowing how to give critical feedback, also known as constructive feedback or negative feedback, is an essential part of being an effective leader.
In order to help people learn and grow, and start building high performing teams, you need to be able to provide them with feedback in situations where they fall short of performance expectations or don’t show up as their best selves.
What is Critical Feedback?
At its best, critical feedback is received as a gift and an indicator that you care about the other person’s growth. At its worst, it can be interpreted as criticism or judgment.
While you ultimately can’t control how someone receives feedback, you can take steps to increase the chances that critical feedback will be received positively.
Criticism vs Feedback: The Difference Between “Being Critical” and Giving Constructive Feedback
When we are “being critical” of someone, our focus is on pointing out what they’re doing wrong. We become critical rather than helpful when we share feedback from a position of “being right.”
Instead, constructive feedback should be focused on sharing objective information about how someone’s specific actions negatively impacted us or their work in order to achieve a goal. When we share feedback in this way, we overcome the “Feedback Fallacy,” or the tendency to forget that feedback is our perception rather than absolute truth.
Critical Feedback Examples: Follow the EAR Model
So how can we give more objective, constructive feedback? The EAR model is a useful tool for mapping out critical feedback examples in a clear, objective manner. We recommend using it to craft your piece of feedback before entering the conversation.
E stands for Environment. The first thing you need to do when giving critical feedback is to get the other person on the same page about the specific event you’re referring to. The best way to start that conversation is by sharing information about the context in which you experienced the behavior.
For example: “Yesterday, right before the weekly meeting with the Senior Leadership team.”
A stands for Action. Next, you want to share the observable behavior or action that had a negative impact on you or the employee’s performance. With this step, be sure to stick to what you heard and saw.
For example: “You asked me if I could please present the weekly update because you weren’t feeling prepared.”
R stands for Result. Sharing the result is a way of letting the employee know how their actions impacted you or their work in a negative way. This is not criticism of the employee’s actions, but rather data that they can use to make a different choice in the future.
For example: “I felt shocked and concerned because we had discussed it the previous day and you told me you felt prepared.”
In this example, the manager has delivered critical feedback without being critical. By sticking to the facts and sharing their experience, they stayed out of criticism and opened the door to a valuable conversation.
Tips for Giving Constructive Feedback without Being Critical
- Role model receiving feedback from others in positive and playful ways. Share a mistake you made that others witnessed, and ask for feedback on “how it could have been worse!” to make sharing feel safe.
- Outside of performance reviews and formal conversations, ask for permission before delivering critical feedback. By asking permission, you are helping the receiver to get in the right mindset and showing respect for their experience. If the employee says “no,” ask them when a better time might be and hold them accountable to what they say.
- After delivering critical feedback, listen appreciatively to the employee’s perspective on the situation. When we deliver negative feedback, we want the employee to listen openly and consider our point of view. By taking the time to ask open-ended questions and understand the employee’s perspective, we are showing mutual respect and consideration for their point of view.
- Practice, practice, practice! Delivering effective feedback can feel intimidating, and the nervousness that comes along with it can get in the way of having a productive conversation. To become more comfortable, practice delivering critical feedback in low-stakes environments with people you trust. Ask them for feedback and suggestions on how to improve your delivery.
Make Feedback a Conversation Habit
Think back to a time when you felt lost at work. Perhaps you weren’t clear on a project guideline or expectations on how to succeed; maybe you walked into a performance review and were blindsided with a critical comment.
Likely you were missing some crucial guidance, some understanding of the expectations. You were probably desperate for some feedback on your performance. Yet, perhaps you were afraid to ask for or receive that feedback before that meeting occurred.
When employees only receive feedback when something is wrong, they can develop a Pavlovian-like response. The mere mention of “feedback” can send the pulse running and the mind racing. That’s why it is so critical for managers to give feedback informally, on a day to day, context-to-context basis.
Feedback is simply a conversation tool for managers to help people go where they want to go. It’s a way to provide somebody with more guidance, to say, “Yes, do more of this,” or, “This thing you did was not successful – can you try something else?” Whether affirmative or constructive, just the practice of exchanging feedback can set employees and managers up for more open, productive conversations that lead to fewer surprises in the long run.
Make it about ‘how to succeed’
Feedback provides consistent checkpoints on the map of expectations. When delivered in a specific, behaviorally based way, it helps a team member engage what is working, what isn’t, and where they contribute value. It can also provide evidence of performance success, leading to development conversations that progress an employee’s career or document evidence for a performance evaluation conversation to steer an employee away from complacency or decline. Specificity is vital here- feedback needs to contain examples of exactly how the person hit or missed the mark.
Consistently delivering feedback is a practice that all managers need to develop. Make it a goal to provide one piece of feedback, whether positive or constructive, to every member of your team today. And tomorrow. And the next day.
Write it on your to-do list, add a calendar reminder, or put a sticky note on your computer – do whatever you need to do to build that habit. Over time you’ll see your team start to perform more to your expectations because now they know where they are – or aren’t – hitting the mark.
Learn More About How to Give Constructive Feedback to Your Team
Need help giving critical feedback? Ziksana offers a play-based training program on how to give feedback, both in-person and virtually.
Through fun activities, leaders practice delivering critical feedback using Ziksana’s EAR model in a low-stakes environment. This training program helps leaders gain confidence in their ability to give critical feedback while having fun and connecting with others!
Check out our EMPOWER program to learn more about how you can empower your employees by delivering effective performance feedback and contact us to learn more today!
