Give Feedback that Gets Results: Specific, Timely, Balanced and Actionable

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That’s it! You kept your eye on the ball and it dropped right into your mitt. You’re getting to be one dynamite ball player!

A “C!” But we worked so hard on fractions. I guess you’re just no good at math. Oh, well.

We all know how it feels. And, if we take the time to remember, we’ve all experienced the long-term consequences of effective and ineffective feedback. Specific feedback, delivered well, can inform and motivate—resulting in higher performance. Poor feedback, delivered inappropriately, demoralizes the receiver and destroys all joy in possible improvement. But worst of all is no feedback. Today’s talented, ambitious employees want to receive feedback: it gives them a clear picture of how they’re doing and where they’re headed. A perceived lack of feedback often motivates your best employees to head elsewhere.

Delivering effective feedback is an essential skill for managers—for coaching, performance assessment, career development, and employee retention. But because of our lifelong experience in receiving both effective and ineffective feedback, the skill may not come intuitively. Fortunately, there are four straightforward criteria to measure our feedback skills against. These criteria also give us specific information with which to improve our delivery of feedback. Effective feedback is:

• Specific
• Timely
• Balanced
• Actionable

Be SPECIFIC So Employees Knows What to Improve and How
For feedback to lead to a desired change, it must focus on specific observations about current behavior. This sounds simple but can take skill and practice to execute in the heat of the moment.

Example: A client presentation goes badly. No agreement is reached on next steps. Your manager tells you that the presentation was not up to your organization’s standards. You feel bad and vow to do better next time. But you don’t know what to do differently, nor will you know (except by inference) what was meant by “standards.” However, if your manager tells you that you need to include some overheads of key points, shorten the talk to 10 minutes, and continue to speak with enthusiasm and commitment, you will know specifically what you are already doing well and how to improve your performance.

Providing facts and data strengthens the impact of feedback. The more specific you are, the clearer the understanding is between you and your recipient—and this can be invaluable if there is any dispute.

Depending upon the communication style and personality of the recipient, you may find that giving advice, offering your opinions, and even brainstorming ideas for improvement is also welcome and effective. 

Focus on behavior, which is relatively easy to change. Avoid making evaluative statements (i.e., judgments or opinions) about personality or attitudes, which are more ingrained and therefore difficult to alter. 

Translate evaluative statements into specific and helpful behavioral statements:

Timeliness – the Sooner the Better
Almost always, the rule for giving feedback is “the sooner the better.” A fresh, here-and-now experience has more impact. When your goal is to derail a behavior before it becomes a habit, timeliness is crucial. One exception: if people are extremely upset, it may be wise to wait until emotions have settled a bit.

Why is timeliness so important? Infrequent or out-of-context feedback increases the chances that details will have been forgotten or circumstances will have changed. It helps to remember what an orchestra conductor told his eighth-grade string players: The right note at the wrong time is the wrong note.

Balance Positive and Negative Feedback
Some managers think the only important feedback is negative. Others believe that the only way to motivate someone is via positive statements. They forget that most employees truly want to know what they can improve.

One effective technique is to talk about how an employee’s strengths can be applied to change a problematic behavior. Verbalize your faith that, with the employee’s hard work and the organization’s support, the employee can improve in this area.

Don’t overload someone with a laundry list of criticism; focus on the one or two most important areas for improvement.

Action Plan: Follow Up, Then Follow Up, Then Follow Up
Managers often assume that corrective feedback automatically equals change. They’re usually mistaken. Sharing information is simply the first step in the process. Make sure that your feedback is focused on the future. Come to agreement on the facts and causes of the problem. When discussing solutions, be clear about your expectations. Agree on action steps, a timeline, and ways you can provide support. It’s a good idea for managers to meet with each of their direct reports on a quarterly basis to discuss both successes and areas that need improvement.

More Ways to Improve Your Feedback Skills
Practice improving your feedback delivery by evaluating your experiences against the four criteria: Was the feedback specific, timely, balanced, and actionable? In addition, team-building exercises can help you understand your personality style and that of your coworkers, so that you can couch your feedback in the ways most easily received by the listener. Self-assessment—understanding what you’re good at—and individual coaching can be helpful. Practice and experience are often the best teachers. Finally, there’s nothing wrong with asking and employee, “When giving you feedback to help you improve performance, how am I doing?”