Written by: Susanne Ekström, Senior Level Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Are you boosting your employee's abilities and confidence through your feedback?
Feedback is a key part of being a good leader. It helps your team grow and makes your company better. But giving great feedback isn't easy. This article shows you how to provide feedback that helps and feels developmental for your employees.
We'll talk about different ways to providing feedback and how to make sure it's about what people do, not who they are. You'll learn how to give feedback right away, so it's fresh and more helpful. This article is about making feedback a regular, useful part of your work that helps everyone do better.
Are you boosting your employee's abilities and confidence through your feedback?
Delivering feedback is a skill that requires understanding the people you work with. Like all skills, it takes practice to get it right. As you build a more feedback-oriented culture, you'll see productivity rises, communication becomes clearer, and your employees feel that their professional growth is an organizational priority.
There are three types of feedback you can deliver:
Confirmational Feedback: This goes beyond simple praise, offering precise, practical guidance (e.g., "Good! Keep going with...").
‘Make Aware’ Feedback: Fosters consensus and mutual understanding (e.g., "Do more of...").
Confronting Feedback: Used for addressing subpar results or behaviors (e.g., "Do it another way.”)
All three types are significant pieces of the feedback puzzle. If you repeatedly use the first two, in contrast, when you deliver confronting feedback, you will have even more impact. When you do it right, the Confront type might never be used if you used Make Aware beforehand, as that already might have corrected things for the better.
From my experience, leaders are either:
Excellent at giving confirmational feedback but hesitate to deliver more confronting feedback (Mr. Nice Guy)
Providing confronting feedback (often in a poor manner), and when providing confirmational feedback (rarely), it's most often "Good work!" with no specification as to what's good.
Is your feedback focusing on your employee or their actions?
According to a recent Gallup report, only 23% of employees worldwide are engaged, enthusiastic about their work, and positively contributing to their organizations. Companies that use a feedback process to set developmental goals and consistently incorporate feedback see more employee engagement.
How do you deliver your feedback so you get the message across?
The only thing you can provide feedback for is what a person does, meaning their actions and behavior. Not on how that person is. You can successfully use this 'rule' in both your business and private life.
The other vital thing to know when providing feedback is that you should never base your feedback on others' hearsay. Don't act on gossip; observe and verify a person's actions or behavior before delivering your feedback.
Example of 'is' - You are sooooo lazy – why didn't you do what we agreed on yesterday?
Example of 'does' - Yesterday, when you didn't do what we agreed on, I thought that the behavior I saw was that of a lazy person!
Do you see the difference between these two examples? In the first example, your employee feels you are attacking them personally. In the second example, you talk about how you thought that person behaved yesterday. You didn't tell them that you believe they are lazy, only that you thought you saw sluggish behavior.
Is your feedback relevant, or do you wait until the annual performance review to share it?
Great companies incorporate a culture of continuous feedback to speed up employee development, which leads to rapid business growth – no more waiting until the annual performance review.
The best time to deliver feedback is in real-time, regardless of what type of feedback you share (Confirmational, Make Aware, or Confronting).
What do I mean by real-time? I mean right after the incident, when both of you have it fresh in your mind.
Imagine you establish a culture that provides positive and critical feedback as equally valid forms of feedback. In this culture you've built, your employees will regard feedback as a developmental opportunity rather than a mere punishment.
Think of the last time you delivered feedback. Did your employee get angry or deny 'it all'?
If that was the case, your feedback recipient probably fell hard on the first step of the Feedback Staircase.
The five steps of the Feedback Staircase are:
🙉 Deny/Discard - Problem? What problem?
👿 Defend - No, you don't understand!
😐 Explain/Excuses - Yes, but I did it because...
👂 Understand - Oh, I see what you mean!
🙋 Change/Remain - Cool, this is what I'll do about it...
Your recipient will instantly run to their conditioned response step as soon as you start providing feedback. The step they move to depends upon your preparation and the delivery of your feedback message. The more you prepare and utilize the Developmental Feedback Template (below), the further up on the staircase your recipient will remain.
The only two steps upon which you can conduct a constructive conversation are steps 4 and 5. If your recipient ends up on any other steps, gently back out of the conversation and schedule a new feedback meeting, where you will show up with an even more thoughtful message.
If you find that your employee has fallen to step 3, it’s possible to 'push' them up a step so that the two of you can have a constructive dialogue about your message. The receiver is trying to explain their actions (step 3) and this is nearer to understanding (step 4) than if they denied your message (step 1).
The more honest, direct, and timely the feedback you provide to your employees' performance, the fewer steps down the stairs they fall. Being specific in your feedback helps your recipient receive the input they need to improve their performance.
Research from Zenger/Folkman shows that few people like to provide constructive feedback, but everyone wants to hear it.
Tips
Never give feedback to an individual employee while they are in a group situation. Nor should you deliver feedback to the group as a whole when there are persons who 'did nothing wrong.'
Are you giving feedback that adds value to your recipient?
Most of the feedback we receive isn't very beneficial, and rarely is it practical. It's often filled with platitudes and vague labels like 'inspiring' or 'great.' Many of us don't have a 'handrail' to help support us and our message when we deliver feedback.
I will help you build a handrail, giving your feedback the support it needs to be effective.
The developmental feedback template
Using this template, you can convey direct feedback with more precision. Getting your feedback message right takes some preparation, but I guarantee it will be worth your while.
Let me share my proven Developmental Feedback Template that my clients and I use successfully. Regardless of whether your feedback is Confirmation, Make Aware, or Confronting in style, this template will work for you.
Use the sentence below to build your feedback message.
I...see/hear... interpret...feel...consequence...wish/desire
How to build your feedback message?
Personal Observation: Start with "I see/hear…"
Behavioral Focus: Address the specific actions, "when you do/say…"
Personal interpretation: Share your perspective, "for me, it means…"
Emotional impact: Express your feelings, "and then I feel…"
Consequential Reflection: Discuss the impact, "and this means that I…"
Future Expectations: Convey your wishes , "and I wish we…"
When you receive feedback – are you acting professionally, or don't you receive feedback at all because your colleagues are afraid of your temper?
Too often, when people receive confronting feedback, they respond poorly — by getting defensive or angry or not listening. But from now on, this is not how you'll react! 😀
How to do it:
Listen: Really listen to what the person giving you feedback is trying to tell you. Often, people instantly start thinking of their response in a situation like this; this renders them deaf to hearing and analyzing the input they receive. The person might have a reasonable point, which you'll never hear if you're only focusing on how to defend yourself.
Don't brush it off: At the minimum, say something like: "I want to take some time to think about this, but I appreciate you telling me." (The lowest step on the Feedback Stairs, Deny/Discard)
Don't get defensive (The second step on the Feedback Stairs, Defend)
Be open: Respond in a way that indicates you're open to the feedback. Say something like, "I didn't realize this was an issue, and I'm grateful to you for letting me know..."
If you disagree, say so nicely: If you genuinely disagree with the feedback you're hearing, and you're sure it's not just your 'cocky' ego getting in the way, then feel free to say so. But pay attention to how you say it and what tone you use.
In this article, I shared several practical tips and two essential tools, the Feedback Stairs and the Developmental Feedback Template, that will increase your employee's quality of work, motivation, and productivity.
Changing how you give feedback is more than just talking better. It's about making a workplace where feedback helps everyone grow and do better.
Good Luck!!
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Read more from Susanne Ekström!
Susanne Ekström, Senior Level Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Susanne is a visionary entrepreneur, worldwide executive coach, and the brain behind BeASmarterLeader and SEE Management.
Her goal? Helping CEOs of $8-20M companies make $499k more in 99 days.
In the past five years, Susanne helped her clients make +$30 million more in profit. Her signature programs and coaching have transformed more than 6,000 individuals into Smarter Leaders.
Her mission? To guide CEOs like you, helping you reach the top of your game. She specializes in turning your big business dreams into reality, making your company richer, your team happier, & your business more robust.
To achieve this mission, Susanne focuses on three main areas:
Freeing up time for you and your key people to strategize
Utilizing and optimizing your company’s potential for greater productivity and profitability
Designing a scalable business model to 2-3X your company
Why? In 2001, her dot-com company went bankrupt during the market crash. This tough experience led her to guide others for over 20 years to avoid similar problems.
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