Sunday, September 13, 2020

Feedback Strategies

The first article about feedback strategies that I read was "How to Provide Great Feedback When You’re Not In Charge". I found many of its concepts to be rather familiar. I did particularly like how it split feedback into three notable groups: Appreciation, Advice and Evaluation. Since the reality is that those three types of feedback are all used for different things, and each can serve their purpose well, so long as they are used appropriately. I liked that the article broke down recommendations on how best to use each of the three types of feedback, since showing examples of how they work and how they're best used can go a long way to improving people's feedback strategies. I also enjoyed that the author included the recommendation to encourage subordinates and peers to provide feedback too, which can help bring a team closer together, and offers more room for improvement for everyone involved.

All of these concepts were things I tended to work with already. Whenever I give feedback to people on my team, I make sure they know I'm just as open to receiving feedback as I am to giving it out. It helps them feel appreciated and valued, and helps me keeps tabs on any mistakes I might be making or places I can improve.

The second article about feedback that I read was "Be a Mirror: Give Readers Feedback That Fosters a Growth Mindset". This one I found a bit less useful, since it was rather focused on its particular subject matter rather than being more generally applied, but there are still some potential takeaways from it. Most specifically, I think the comments on being specific (ironically enough) were probably the most generally useful takeaway from the article. Feedback that isn't specific enough often loses a lot of its effectiveness, since they person receiving it might struggle to figure out exactly where to apply it. And going hand in hand with that, the note that feedback should still be wide enough to apply onto the next project is a good thing to keep in mind. If the feedback isn't going to be applicable to other things they'll do in the future, it's not all that helpful. So the key is to strike that proper balance between specific enough to help provide direction while still being oriented in such a way that it can be applied to future projects instead of just the one you're providing feedback on.

Image Source: Tumisu on Pixabay

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