How to give better feedback
Make sure your praise does what it is supposed to do
About 20 years ago, when Millennials first entered the workforce, many more veteran workers complained about these young people’s constant desire for feedback. I was speaking at an event where I mentioned that people could get feedback every 3-6 months instead of during an annual review, and someone a bit older scoffed that “most of our projects are longer than 3-6 months.”
To which I believe I said…so what? Waiting to give feedback until after a project is finished misses a huge opportunity to help people improve. Surveys tend to find that most people crave feedback, and so pretty much any interaction can be an opportunity to check in and redirect if necessary.
That said, some feedback is far more constructive than other feedback. Indeed, I think we’ve all been guilty of giving one of the least effective forms of feedback:
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