Growing at Work
Most feedback fails because it is vague, late or delivered in a mood
People avoid giving feedback because they fear the reaction, and avoid asking for it because they fear the answer. The result is a year of nothing, then a review full of surprises. This session offers a simple structure for giving feedback that is specific and useful, ways to receive it that keep the conversation open, and some practice at both.
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Feedback delayed until a review has usually lost most of its use.
A comment made the week something happened can be acted on. The same comment made nine months later is a grievance. Yet many people save feedback for the formal review because that feels safe, and then deliver it with so many qualifiers that the point is lost.
Receiving it is no easier. Most people hear criticism as a verdict on themselves, and either defend or go quiet. Both are understandable, and both are fixable with a few habits. Feedback in a workplace also flows sideways and upwards, not only down, and the session covers those too.
What the session covers
32 topics across 6 areas. Six parts, giving first, then receiving, then practice.
Why Feedback Goes WrongThe common failures are predictable.6
- Waiting until it is a big problem
- Wrapping it in so much praise that it disappears
- Describing the person rather than the behaviour
- Speaking in generalities: always, never, attitude
- Giving it in front of others, or by message at night
- Saying it without checking what the other person saw
A Simple StructureOne of several widely used; the point is to be specific.5
A structure is useful because it keeps you to what you saw and the effect it had, rather than your interpretation of the person's motives. Adapt the wording so it sounds like you.
- What happened: the observable behaviour, with a date or example
- The effect: what it did to the work, the team or the customer
- What next: what you would like to see, or a question about it
- Leaving room for their account
- Agreeing what happens next, and when you will check
Positive Feedback That Means SomethingPraise is feedback too.5
- Naming exactly what was good
- Saying what it made possible
- Giving it soon after, and in the right setting
- Avoiding praise that sets up a 'but'
- Recognising work that is easy to overlook
Giving Feedback Sideways and UpwardsA manager is a person too.5
- Asking permission before offering it
- Describing the effect on you or the work, not the person's character
- Choosing a private, unhurried moment
- Starting with a question where you can
- Knowing when raising it will not help
Receiving Feedback Without DefendingYou do not have to agree, but you do have to listen.6
- Breathing, and not responding immediately
- Asking for an example
- Repeating back what you heard
- Separating what is useful from what is unfair
- Thanking them and taking time before you decide
- Following up later with what you did
Asking for FeedbackBetter questions, better answers.5
- Why 'any feedback?' gets 'no, it is fine'
- Asking about a specific piece of work
- Asking what one thing to do differently
- Choosing who to ask, and when
- Showing that you acted on the last answer
Practice in the session
- Rewriting a vague comment as specific feedback
- Role-playing a short feedback conversation
- Receiving a piece of critical feedback and replying calmly
- Planning one real conversation to have this month
- Choosing a specific question to ask a colleague
What this session is not
- Not a formal appraisal process
- Not a place to give feedback about named colleagues
- Not a replacement for HR or disciplinary procedure
- Not advice on a dispute or a legal complaint
- Not therapy for hard conversations
How the session runs
A facilitator with managing experience introduces the structure and the common failures, then participants practise in pairs with short, made-up scenarios: giving feedback, receiving it, and asking for it. Each person drafts the opening of one real conversation they intend to have. Nobody is asked to describe real colleagues, and observations stay in the room.
What your students leave with
- A simple structure for feedback: what happened, the effect, what next
- The difference between describing behaviour and judging a person
- Ways to deliver positive and critical feedback so each is heard
- Habits for receiving feedback without arguing or collapsing
- How to ask for feedback that is specific enough to use
- A first conversation they have actually practised
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
The conversation you have been putting off is usually smaller than the one you will have later.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.