by Caryl Teh
Feedback is great. In fact, it’s essential to help you keep growing in your professional life! But if spoken or taken the wrong way, it could sour rather than strengthen relationships. That’s why feedback is a dish best served with respect and care. In a previous etc, we covered some general tips on how you can do that (which you can catch up on HERE).
Today, we’d like to share a few examples of what great feedback sounds like with two possible responses to the same situation, one non-constructive and the other constructive.
Non-constructive: “You’re overloading me with work. I feel exploited and feel as though no one cares about me.”
Constructive: “With my current workload, I am concerned about my ability to maintain the quality of my work. Could we check in about my capacity before I am assigned new tasks?”
Non-constructive: “I’m really lost on this project and no one is giving me clear direction. Could you just be less vague and help me?”
Constructive: “I’m having some trouble understanding exactly what you need from me. I want to ensure I can deliver my best to your expectations. Could you spare me some time so I can understand what needs to be done?”
Non-constructive: “You left me in the lurch and I had to lead that meeting by myself. You didn’t bother to tell me how to deal with X stakeholders or what they needed from us. I feel like you checked out and weren’t leading our team.”
Constructive: “I didn’t feel sure that I have the authority to talk to X stakeholders and make decisions about the project. Because you weren’t present at our recent meeting with them like I expected, I wasn’t sure how to act, or lead the meeting effectively without overstepping. Could you help me get a clearer understanding of what my responsibilities and authority are. That would help me a lot.”
Not constructive: “You were mean to me yesterday. I feel like you don’t respect me.”
Constructive: “I’d like to check in with you on your satisfaction with my work. Yesterday I got the impression that you were frustrated. Could we set a time to communicate more clearly about what I need to improve on?”
Hopefully this has given you a better idea of how you can give and ask for feedback in a way that will help your work relationships flourish. Keep working at it! You’ll see the difference it can make.
Source:
Trello
