I personally don’t agree with the message of ‘feedback is a gift’ (I highly recommend reading Ed Batista’s article on this). But there’s no doubt that feedback is still an important process within any organisation.

When done well, feedback can be an important catalyst for collective and individual learning, and can foster a culture of humility and curiosity - vital ingredients in continued growth.

When done badly it becomes a tick-the-box exercise done once a year, in which people co-opt their work buddies into giving them great feedback in order to maximise their chances of a promotion or a bonus. Or it’s done only in one direction, from top to bottom, in a process in which bosses pass the blame for their failings down to their reports, who then pass the baton down to their reports, and so on.

I will include links to resources below. The voiceover I’ll add to what has already been written on this topic is:

• When giving feedback - a lot of frameworks out there focus on teeing up the delivery of feedback by asking permission in some way and then jumping in. In my experience, the MOST effective entrypoint into a feedback discussion is to ask the other person how they felt that particular thing went - ‘So how did you feel the presentation went?’. This opens up a more self-reflective headspace for them; and, if it sucked, they probably know that already! They will often bring up the thing you’re about to provide feedback about of their own accord when asked this question, and then they’re likely to be much more receptive to any follow on conversation.

Feedback provider - ‘So how did you feel the presentation went?’.

Recipient - ‘I wasn’t too happy with it. I felt like I rushed it and the key message got lost.’

Feedback provider - ‘Yeah I could see you were rushing in parts. The first 5 slides were great, but once things got a bit derailed by that question, I could see you getting worried about time and starting to rush. Shall we talk about how to make sure the key message lands next time?’

This has a much more collaborative feel than if the feedback provider had jumped straight into saying the presentation was rushed.

If the recipient had responded by saying “I thought it went great,” then that’s an opportunity to say something like, “I noticed a few things, do you mind if I share those with you?”

Obviously some feedback might relate to longer running topics, but the same structure works, it’s just the upfront question needs to broaden to something like, ‘So how do you think things have been going in the last 3 months?’

• ‘Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.’ This quote always springs to mind when talking about feedback. Most of the power of feedback comes not in the moment of delivery, but in the trusting relationship that you’ve hopefully built. If the person you’re delivering feedback to thinks you don’t give a damn about them, no framework is going to help you.

Below are some useful resources and frameworks around feedback:

• Matt Mochary’s guide to feedback