Giving Effective Feedback (HBR 20-Minute Manager Series)

Here’s what you can accomplish by giving feedback:
• Show your direct reports and colleagues that you’re attentive to them and their performance.
• Signal appreciation for a job well done.
• Redirect undesirable behavior.
• Point out a more productive course of action.
• Contribute to others’ learning and development.
• Motivate and inspire individuals to higher levels of performance.
• Strengthen your rapport with coworkers.
• Foster open communication and enhance teamwork.
Delivering feedback should

Feedback is often corrective, which means it’s intended to help the recipient change course or adjust practices when the current ones aren’t working. It can also be positive, aimed at rei

feedback discussion is an opportunity for you to share your observations with others about their job performance to elicit productive change.

Bear in mind that when you give positive feedback frequently, your negative feedback, when it is warranted, will seem more credible and less threatening. Offering input only when problems arise may cause people to see you as unappreciative or petty.

Avoid giving feedback in these circumstances:
• When you do not have all the information about a given incident
• When the only feedback you can offer concerns factors that the recipient cannot easily change or control
• When the person who needs the feedback appears to be highly emotional or especially vulnerable immediately after a difficult event
• When you do not have the time or the patience to deliver the feedback in a calm and thorough manner
• When the feedback is based on your personal preference,