Skip to content

Feedback

What is it?

Feedback is a cornerstone of personal and professional growth, offering valuable insights that highlight opportunities for improvement and development. It enables reflection on behaviors, performance, and outcomes, fostering continuous learning and progress. In a professional setting, engaging with feedback—both as a giver and a receiver—is vital.

As a feedback recipient it is important to actively listen, reflect, and seek clarification to fully understand the insights provided to you. When delivering feedback, ensure that your message is clear, constructive, and aligned with the recipient's goals. Take the time to check for understanding, reinforcing the purpose and context of your input.

Quality Feedback

Effective feedback is not about making someone feel good or bad, it is about inspiring growth and improvement. Quality feedback should be timely, specific, and actionable, focusing on behaviors and their impact rather than personal attributes. Examples illustrating the difference between unhelpful feedback and constructive feedback:

Situation:
During team collaboration, a peer frequently interjects to express their viewpoint without fully considering or building on the team’s discussion. This behavior sometimes results in their contributions being misaligned with the meeting's goals.

Bad Feedback: "John, in meetings, you interrupt a lot and don’t seem to listen to what others are saying."

Good Feedback: "John, in recent meetings, some of your points seem to miss key parts of the team’s discussion, causing delays to revisit topics. Let me know if there’s anything I or the team can do to help."

The bad feedback focuses on judgment without specificity, using phrases like "interrupt a lot" and "don’t seem to listen" which are accusatory and offer no actionable steps. The good feedback is specific, highlighting behaviors "missing key points from discussions" and their impact "causing delays" and inviting collaboration "Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help". This encourages growth without alienating the feedback recipient.

Feedback Methods

The method of delivering feedback influences the tone and effectiveness of the session. Different methods can be used depending on the context, whether for individual or team-based feedback. Individuals may also have preferences for how best to give and receive feedback. Talk with folks to understand their preferences.

  • Ad-hoc Meetings: For urgent or sensitive issues, schedule one off feedback meetings with a clear agenda and outcome in mind. These sessions are suited for difficult conversations and may require more time to ensure thoughtful, productive discussions. The deliverer should be prepared to guide the conversation while fostering understanding and collaboration.
  • Plus/Delta: Can be applied in different contexts to ask for feedback - either one-on-one or to a group after a session together. In Plus/Delta (+/∆) you ask for one positive from working together (the plus) and something that should be changed in the future (the delta).
  • Retrospectives: Retrospectives are useful for reflecting on performance as a group to learn how to improve. Individuals may learn about feedback or can ask for feedback through the retrospective forum.
  • Recurring 1:1 Sessions: For consistent growth, you can schedule regular feedback meetings with a mentor, peer, or coach. These sessions should follow an agenda, starting with a review of progress on previous action items, discussing current challenges or successes, and setting new goals. Roles can alternate between deliverer and recipient, or remain fixed. The key is to ensure recipients leave with actionable feedback and a clear path forward.
  • Speedback: Useful for practicing how to give one another feedback, Speedbacks are like “speed dating” for feedback. Teams can use short 1:1 breakout sessions from a shared channel. Each session lasts under 10 minutes, allowing team members to deliver concise feedback to one another. Rotating until everyone has received feedback creates a fast-paced and engaging way to share insights.

Why do it?

Feedback drives growth, builds trust, and strengthens collaboration. It clarifies areas for improvement, provides an outside perspective, aligns goals, and ensures progress. By focusing on specific behaviors and offering actionable solutions, feedback fosters accountability and inspires meaningful development. It’s essential for personal and team success.