Giving feedback to your staff can be difficult—you don’t want to make anyone feel guilty about their performance. In fact, many leaders tend to forego giving feedback altogether in fear of causing tension between them and their team. It’s only natural, we want to avoid conflict as much as possible because of the discomfort it brings and, as leaders, we want to make everyone feel at ease and work their best. It feels almost counterintuitive to disrupt that.

However, when you avoid giving feedback, you only aggravate the situation. Without the criticism that will ultimately improve a staff member’s performance and productivity, they’ll continue to make the same mistake or display the same behaviour. You’re actually doing them a bigger disservice by keeping it from them. Beyond that, you’re also hampering business growth.

Feedback is necessary to develop your staff and to correct any mistakes so that they can avoid making them in the future. It’s a great way to sharpen your leadership skills, show that you’re attentive to your staff and passionate about their growth, and it opens up conversations about how they can perform better. 

By giving consistent, constructive, and well-timed feedback, you can run your business with more confidence and trust in your staff.

Why is giving feedback difficult?

Many CEOs and managing partners find that giving feedback is sometimes even more difficult than letting an employee go. Sure, it’s hard, but then it passes after that. But when it comes to criticism, they have to encounter that staff member again and feel their palpable discomfort if the feedback is given or received in a less than palatable way. And while it might just be some leftover tension, it can be difficult to navigate. 

There’s also the anxiety that your staff member might lash out or become overly defensive. This kind of confrontation can be confusing, especially if handling staff is not your forte. A lot of CEOs and managing partners are equipped with skills that help them successfully run their business, but not always at handling their staff and their responses to criticism.

As human beings, avoiding pain, conflict, and negative feelings is instinctive. When we encounter them, our fight or flight responses are triggered and we try to protect ourselves. Sometimes this shows in how people defend their actions and become angry when someone else says they’re doing something incorrectly. 

The same goes for the other way around. It can be painful to deliver any sort of negative assessment because feelings of guilt are associated with hurting another person. Being the bearer of bad news can weigh heavily on your shoulders.

But by packaging that feedback in a clear manner with good intentions and a blueprint on how they can improve, it can be less of a burden and more of a way to help your staff grow. 

10 ways to give feedback to your staff

In order to best communicate with your staff on how they can improve, these ten things need to be kept front of mind to deliver any criticism you might have in a productive, uplifting way. 

1. Praise in public, criticise in private

By celebrating your staff members’ wins, you show that you appreciate them and want to give them recognition amidst their peers. It boosts team morale and allows them to feel good about themselves for a job well done. Although it’s still best to ask your staff in advance how they want to be recognised for their achievements (some may feel awkward about being praised in public), the general rule of thumb is that success can be celebrated together.

On the other hand, when someone fumbles and makes an error, it’s better to confront them privately. They may feel embarrassed if they’re called out in front of their colleagues, making everyone in the room feel uncomfortable. No matter how well-intentioned, criticising an employee in public can demoralise them and make them self-conscious about what the team thinks of them. 

2. Empathise

Handling your staff with empathy is the best thing you can do as a leader. Each member is different and being attentive to their sensibilities can help with your approach. By putting yourself in their shoes, you can have a better understanding of how they’ll respond.

Being criticised is difficult so by seeing it from their perspective, you can construct your feedback around how you believe they’ll take it. It can be a blow to their self-esteem to learn that they’ve made a mistake or aren’t performing up to par, especially if they believe that they’re doing well or carrying out their tasks effectively. That gap between what they think they’re doing right and what they’ve actually done wrong can make them question themselves.

Be empathic and give them the time and space to collect themselves and their thoughts. Communicate and listen actively to their concerns and respond accordingly.

3. Describe actions over interpretations

A lot of the time, feedback is boiled down to how we perceive an action rather than the action itself. Which is why people who are told that they’re being rude or being inattentive become defensive—they don’t intend to be rude, so of course they weren’t. 

But if you pinpoint their actions instead, it can be hard for them to argue the facts. Instead of saying “you were being rude at the meeting,” you can point out that they interrupted their colleague while they were speaking. This is less likely to warrant an angry response and, instead, helps them reflect on what they did and how it’s seen by others. 

By being specific with positive feedback you can reinforce the same actions and behaviour to get repeated success. Telling your employee that they produced a great report won’t have the same impact as saying, “I appreciate how thorough you were with the facts and figures on your last report, congratulations.” They know now to do the same thing they did to earn approval.

4. Tell staff what they can do to improve

It’s not enough to tell an employee what they did wrong, you also have to supply them with pointers on how to improve and how to avoid those mistakes in the future.

By giving them a blueprint on how to approach their mistake, you immediately give them a way to redeem themselves instead of letting them flounder and try to figure out what to do by themselves. It also shows that you’re invested in them and want them to grow and succeed. 

5. Bin the sandwich approach

The famous sandwich approach has been exhausted by managers and leaders. By bordering a thick slab of criticism with two positive statements (that may or may not have been conjured up just to soften the blow), you dilute what you want to say and send a mixed message. The sandwich method undermines your critical feedback and makes poor use of positive affirmations.

It has good intentions, but it ultimately muddles what you’re trying to get across. It’s a confusing way to tell someone that they can improve on something. Instead, be clear with your feedback and explain how their behaviour or actions impact their performance and, on a larger scale, the business. 

6. Don’t let feedback pile up

If you wait too long to correct or reinforce behaviour and it all piles up into a list of things that you’ve noticed about your employee, you’re not doing them any favours. Not only will it feel worse on their part because they’re suddenly receiving an entire catalogue of their mistakes, but the urgency of each evaluation will also wane. Instead of seeing each piece of feedback as an individual avenue for improvement, it becomes an overwhelming wall of mistakes that they might not know how to overcome. 

By delivering it right away instead of waiting for performance reviews, you can put a stop to any errors.

In terms of positive feedback, it’s good to praise your staff as soon as they succeed in something. Compounding the joy they feel in the moment can make them feel more valued, which encourages them to seek the same result and bring in more success. 

7. Be specific about your feedback

Avoid vague statements as they don’t allow for actionable improvement. Instead, you’ll be discouraging your staff because they won’t know what exactly they need to do to turn things around. 

By opting to say that a report they turned in lacks attention to detail and fact-checking (by showing them the specific parts), you’re being infinitely more helpful than just saying that their report is terrible. They know what they have to tweak and can get to it immediately rather than cluelessly scrutinising their entire work.

If you offer guidance and give them the option to talk to you if they still need more direction, you also show that you’re paying attention and working with them as part of the team.  

8. Make feedback conversational

Don’t take up all the air in the room, make sure that you give them the chance to ask questions or present their side of the story, as well. You might learn that they’re having some trouble in their personal life or even figure out that they didn’t intend to come off a certain way. And by listening to them, you can both figure out a way to move forward.

And don’t stop at just the one feedback session. Make sure you follow up with them and allow them to air out any concerns they may still have. By making it a two-way conversation, you open up communication and can put them at ease about your relationship. 

9. When possible, give feedback in person

Criticising someone over text or email can be tricky as your tone can be misconstrued. Even if you mean well, an employee can still take it differently. By relying on nonverbal cues, a comforting environment, and welcoming body language, your feedback won’t come off as harsh.

The way you say something is just as important as what’s being said. So make it clear that no hostility is meant by your words by softening your tone and showing that you’re open to any questions and to having a conversation about it. 

10. Encourage staff members to give you feedback too

Leading by example is one of the most effective ways to run your business. By showing that you are also open to feedback and criticism (and receiving it well), your employees will be more receptive to it, too. 

If you show a willingness to change and improve your ways, your staff may feel less resistance to doing the same.

While it can be an intimidating task to give feedback to your staff in hopes that they’ll receive it well, you can relieve some of the pressure from yourself by being mindful of your words, the way you deliver them, and by keeping your staff’s growth a priority. If you genuinely want them to develop and, by extension, the business to succeed, you can overcome the hesitation that comes with giving feedback and properly communicate with your team when necessary.

If you have any more questions about how to give your staff some constructive feedback, feel free to give us a call.