If you Need to Give Feedback, Try These Tips

Have you ever given feedback to someone, and that person pulled back from what you were saying and fell into a defensive mode? If so, then you know giving feedback is an important but complicated process, especially for managers, because it can affect morale and the bottom line.

According to “A Deeper Look at Coaching: Meeting Your Challenges” in the Leading Effectively e-Newsletter, the most important factor in giving feedback is to give your coachee the opportunity to learn and develop.

There are several ways to ensure that you give feedback in the most effective way:

• Be specific when you describe the situation and behavior.
• Tell the coachee what effect this has had on you.
• Once you give your feedback, then be quiet and give it some time to sink in.
• Stay away from blaming words, and frame your feed-back in “I” statements rather than “you” statements.
• Be sensitive. What you are saying could potentially be painful to the coachee.