In an episode of The Cosby Show, the patriarch of this family, actor Bill Cosby, was just told by his daughter that the boyfriend she just brought home was really her fiancé. He was disappointed - not in the young man did but in the way the news was broken. Cosby said it was like "taking a sizzling, delicious, robust T-bone steak and serving it on a garbage can lid." Motivational speaker, Eric Sykes of the Sykes Group agrees. "We can be giving great feedback but unless we make it appetising for others to digest, our feedback will not be acted upon."
Feedback matters. At work, it should be a planned supervisory technique, part of a comprehensive approach aimed at improving employee behaviour without damaging employee morale. "I think the best way to give feedback is to do it in casual but direct manner," says Angie Ng, personnel manager at The DRx Group, a medical cosmetic company. This HR practitioner, with over 10 years of expertise, dislikes the notion of a top-down approach as she feels that limits supervisor-subordinate communications. "I believe in two-way communications as it means that all employees take ownership for their actions and will seek to provide their deliverables better," explained Ng. She insists that effective feedback has to be given in a safe environment, be timely, concise and tactful. "When I notice a change in performance, I tell myself that the next time it happens I need to provide immediate feedback."
Anne Saunier, a principal at Sibson & Co., a consulting firm puts it this way, "If you have ideas and information that will help someone perform better, it's hostile not to share them."
Some useful suggestions when giving feedback:
1. Be clear about what you want to say
2. Emphasise the positive - This isn't being collusive in the person's dilemma
3. Avoid general comments
4. Focus on behaviour rather than the person
5. Only refer to behaviour that can be changed
6. Be descriptive rather than evaluative
7. Own the feedback - Use "I" statements
8. Don't generalise - Words like "all," "never" and "always," often set arbitrary limits on behaviour
Source: Ian McGill & Liz Beatty, Action learning: A practitioner's guide
