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How to Give and Receive Excellent Feedback

Written by: Zoe Dawes

Article Overview: Giving and receiving excellent feedback is a key skill for any leader or manager. But it is so often done badly. Get some handy tips to help you become more effective at using feedback to help others to excel at work and play.

How to Give and Receive Excellent Feedback

What is Feedback?

"Feedback is any communication that gives a person information about some aspect of BEHAVIOUR and its AFFECT on you." (Miller 1976)


It is not limited to the workplace or to job activities. When you tell someone sitting behind you at the cinema that their talking is bothering you, you are providing feedback. Feedback can be VERBAL or NON-VERBAL.

You can provide feedback face-to-face or on the phone. You can also give feedback in written form, such as in a report, memo or letter. The important thing is that it should be done in a POSITIVE way, and should not be too personal. Try to concentrate on the BEHAVIOUR rather than the person.

Giving Feedback

• Consider the value of the feedback before it to the receiver. For whose benefit is the information? Check that the receiver is open to it.

• Focus on the behaviour, rather than the person. It is more helpful to describe what a person does, rather than make comments about what s/he is.

• Offer a description of what you observed, rather than a judgement which evaluates it in terms of right or wrong.

• Be specific and offer examples. If the feedback is too general it will leave the receiver unclear about what to change.

• Ensure the person knows the impact of the behaviour on you.

• Be prepared to provide a perception of what you consider could have been an alternative action.

• Focus on behaviour that can be changed, not on things, which can’t.

• Encourage the recipient to check the feedback out with other people.





Receiving Feedback

• Be specific when asking for feedback in describing the behaviours you want feedback on

• Listen with an open mind. Whether you agree with comments or not, remember that in the eyes of the giver it is reality and, as such, it is as valid as your own perception

• Don’t attempt to defend or explain your actions. Your job as receiver is to do your best to gather and understand the information. Only use explanations if they are a sincere attempt to gather information – see below

• Ask questions – these may be for clarification, further information or specific examples ie This is what I was trying to do. How else could I have done it?

• Ask others for their views, not as a means of deflecting unwelcome comments, but to gain a broader picture of an incident or behaviour


• Ask for suggestions, when appropriate, or for alternative actions and changes that could be made


• End with feasible and actionable changes which you believe you can carry out

• Act upon them!



Quality feedback should contain the following:

• What you notice in terms of what you SEE, HEAR and FEEL
• What the IMPACT was for you of that person’s actions
• What the person might like to CHANGE
• What would be HELPFUL if the feedback had been for you

 Chartwell Coaching 2003

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Article Tags: action focus, behaviours, benefit, cinema, giving feedback, information check, job, judgement, perception, person information, providing feedback, recipient, report memo



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