Instant Feedback

What have you found to be the most effective tools or approaches for giving feedback to members of your team?

I think timely is probably the most important. I just think it’s human nature to feel disappointed when you’re told something either that you could have done better or that wasn’t received the way you intended, right? Impact versus intent. And so I think saying it in the context, I’ll just kind of remove some of the defensiveness because it’s like we’re talking about a concrete issue and opportunity, one.
And two, it’s like recall, right? Did that happen? Are you sure? We don’t get into the factual conversation as much as I just want to give you feedback, this is where I think it could have gone a lot better. It’s kind of the keep doing, start doing, stop doing model.
So, I like that. I like timely. I like specific. And then my style is direct. And I think it’s direct with some understanding of who’s sitting in front of me. I think that can be very different, depending on who it is, what level they are, how often I’m giving them feedback versus other people are giving them feedback. It does modulate.
And I think it is important to, for me, reflect on my career and when I’m receiving feedback and when it landed, and it lands when there’s more of a relationship. It lands when there are more at bats with someone. And if you say, like, well, that was an opportunity to improve, but at least they saw me perform really well these other three times. Because personally, I think we’re all our worst critic. And so I think the goal is to accelerate strengths, not sort of accelerate the way in which someone perceives themselves as not being successful.