Feedback Strategies and my own feedback experiences

 The two feedback articles I read this week were "Why Do So Many Managers Avoid Giving Praise?" by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman, and "How to Give Bad Feedback Without Being a Jerk" by Adam Grant.

Having worked in situations and jobs where I have received lots of feedback and some where I have received barely any I would tend to agree with what Zenger and Folkman have to say about the feedback process. I used to work a job where my managers would tend to only pick out the negatives when giving feedback and refuse to acknowledge when I'd actually done a good job. I don't think this is an effective method of giving feedback to colleagues as it makes you feel as though you aren't doing anything right and can eventually create a very negative work environment. On the other hand I have also worked jobs where my superiors avoided giving me direct feedback altogether and instead went to upper management without my knowledge. Needless to say that once I found this out I wasn't too happy and I've learned that I always prefer for someone to come to me first with an issue so we can have a dialogue.

An image of a man giving constructive feedback to another man. Image available at Pexels.

After reading the article published by Grant on giving feedback in a constructive manner I have come to the conclusion that I really like this feedback approach. Grant uses the example of a "feedback sandwich" where people only point out the positives in someones work when giving feedback and outlines how this doesn't really work in practice. The examples he gives in the article really resonated with me and thinking about my own past feedback experiences in life, I would much rather have conversations like those mentioned in the article than the ones I've had. I particularly liked the thought experiment he laid out where the feedback giver starts with the positive feedback but also explains the purpose of the meeting is to talk about the negatives.

Overall I feel like I've learned quite a bit from the articles I've read and I will certainly be keeping them in mind when giving or receiving feedback in the future!