Feedback

What it means

Feedback is telling someone what you saw and what it caused, so they can improve without feeling attacked. You describe an action and its result. You do not describe the person.

"You are careless" is a judgement. "The invoice went out with the wrong rate, and the client called us twice" is something you saw and something it caused. The second one gives the person something they can fix.

Why it matters

People cannot fix what no one tells them. When you stay silent, small problems grow, and then you explode about them months later. Honest, calm feedback keeps problems small and keeps relationships strong.

• Mistakes get corrected early, while they are still cheap.
• Good people stay, because they know where they stand.
• Your team starts giving you feedback too, and you hear the problems you cannot see.

How to use it

1. Do it soon and in private. Praise can be public, but correction should be one to one.
2. Say what you saw in plain facts. Use the date, the task, the number. Leave out words like "always" and "never".
3. Say what it caused. Link the action to a real result for the customer, the team or the business.
4. Ask for their view before you conclude anything. Often there is a reason you did not know.
5. Agree on

Common mistakes

• Saving up complaints and delivering them all at once.
• Wrapping the real point in so much praise that it is never heard.
• Attacking character instead of describing the action.
• Giving feedback when you are angry, instead of waiting until you can be calm.

Try this today