Episode 18. How to Give Constructive Feedback
GIVING CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK IS A CRITICAL SKILL
The truth is when it comes to communicating to another person how to do something differently or better… there’s a lot that can be lost in translation and that can have some pretty bad consequences! So, why should you invest the time in developing this skill? Because you never want to be the deliverer of unhelpful and potentially harmful feedback.
On the flip side, giving thoughtful and constructive feedback is a skill that will move mountains in your business! Imagine being able to provide honest feedback, even when it’s difficult, and be comfortable doing so! Imagine yourself delivering that feedback with confidence and knowing that it was for the betterment of your team members and your business. And finally, imagine the person on the receiving end of your feedback actually appreciating the fact that you took the time to do so. That is our goal today! To give you these fundamental skills to master the art of giving feedback.
CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK FOR DEVELOPMENT
Developmental feedback is typically any feedback that you’re going to provide to your team members in order to help them further develop their skills. Whether you’re providing feedback on their client service, design prowess or how accurately they captured your vibe in their copy… this feedback is all oriented around helping them improve in some way. Think about this in the context of your daily interactions with your team. Did they turn in a project that missed the mark? Take the opportunity to address it. That is developmental feedback! It’s continuous and will always come up because there is always room for growth!
CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK FOR EVALUATION
The second reason you’ll be giving feedback is for evaluation. This is the more formal process that we see really often in larger companies with performance reviews. Now, I know that many small businesses slide away from the formality of that, but I want to bring a couple of things to your attention. As a business owner, giving feedback during an evaluation is a great way to address performance over a longer period of time! For example, you can evaluate your team members after the first 90 days of employment and then on a yearly basis! This is a great opportunity to set goals and measure performance based on those goals!
TIP 1: CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK SHOULD NEVER COME IN A “FEEDBACK SANDWICH”
Do you know how a sandwich has a piece of bread on the bottom, then the actual sandwich ingredients, with another piece of bread on top? Okay so, a feedback sandwich is when you start with a piece of bread - positive feedback to warm up the conversation. Then you add your meat, cheese, and lettuce - the constructive feedback that you actually need to provide. Then, you add on another piece of bread - more positive feedback to soften the blow of the constructive feedback that you just gave. Do you get it? It’s sandwiching in the actual constructive feedback, with compliments and positivity, not because it serves the conversation… but because it eases your guilt about having to deliver constructive feedback. Here’s what I want to put on your heart… your constructive feedback doesn’t need to be sandwiched… it is a gift that will help your team member improve! There’s no need to feel guilty and try to downplay it with the sandwich method.
TIP 2: DELIVER FEEDBACK IN A TIMELY MANNER
If you see a team member respond incorrectly to a client complaint or publish an article without proofing it first… don’t set a mental reminder to talk to them about it later. Whenever possible, you want to address behaviors as soon as possible! Why? Well, for one, the recency of the event helps both you and your team member have a more accurate memory of what happened.
For example, if your team member handles client refund requests and there’s an incident where a client felt mistreated… you don’t want to “handle it” and then not have a conversation with that team member until the next week. Instead, you can, of course, tell the team member that you’ll handle the conversation, but schedule a time later that day to pow-wow around what happened. Providing feedback that same day gives them an opportunity to act on the feedback immediately based on what they learned from the experience. The rule of thumb here is to address things immediately if possible and no more than 2 days after the incident.
TIP 3: BE STRAIGHT FORWARD IN YOUR FEEDBACK DELIVERY
Many of us struggle with this because the honest truth is that giving constructive feedback can be uncomfortable. I mean, there you are, telling another person that they made a mistake or they need to improve in some way. If you’re not used to having conversations like that, it can be intimidating. But here’s the thing…. there’s no room to beat around the bush. In fact, being indirect can do more harm than good!
For example, if you have a team member that has offended multiple clients who asked for a product refund… you shouldn’t say something like, “Well, uh, hey… I just wanted to bring to your attention, that you’re pretty good with the clients, but I do think you could be a bit better and make them feel comfortable… especially if they’re having some kind of issue.”
So, how can you improve that statement? Be as straightforward as you can and say, “Hey, I’ve noticed that there have been a few issues with clients who have requested refunds. Let’s have a conversation about how you’ve handled that in the past, and how we can improve our process from here on out.” That is much more straightforward!
TIP 4: BE SPECIFIC WITH YOUR FEEDBACK
This goes hand in hand with being straightforward about any issues or opportunities for improvement. But it adds a layer of detail that’s so helpful! Let’s continue with our client refund example. So, you are being timely and having this conversation ASAP. You aren’t beating around the bush, and you addressed the fact that there have been issues with clients requesting refunds, and you want to improve the way they communicate your policy to your clients.
Okay, so how can you be specific? By calling out any specific behaviors that you witnessed or were made aware of! In this case, the client may have complained that they felt they weren’t listened to… and they felt like your team member was just quoting policy without hearing them. You should provide this feedback directly to your team member! A lot of times it can be best to directly quote feedback!
TIP 5: PROVIDE ACTIONABLE FEEDBACK
Actionable feedback gives your team member something tangible to work on. A really easy way to think about this is by thinking about the specific behavior or skill that you’re training them on and tell them whether they should start, stop, or continue it.
Let’s keep it simple by going back to our refund example. The customer felt like they weren’t being heard because your team member started explaining the refund policy before they reiterated what the customer had experienced. That made your client feel disregarded and maybe even rushed. So, now that you’re addressing this with your team member, you can provide actionable feedback by saying, “Instead of bringing up the policy at the beginning of the conversation, make sure you’re reiterating our clients by repeating issues they’re telling you about… then go into the policy.” So you’ve told them to STOP bringing up the policy in the first few minutes of a customer service call and to START repeating the client’s concerns to help them feel heard! Now that is actionable feedback!
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