Guidelines for Giving Feedback

Timothy Franz

 “As a manager, if you are not willing to ask for and accept feedback, then you don’t have the right to give it”

Seth R. Silver

“Feedback is the breakfast of champions”

Ken Blanchard

“Usually, we judge ourselves based on intentions.  But, we judge others, and they judge us, based on behavior”

Rudolf Dreikurs

Problem behavior ignored or tolerated is problem behavior encouraged”

Seth R. Silver

Impact of Not Giving Feedback

  • The person with poor behavior may think everything is okay and there is no need to change anything and undesirable behavior is allowed to continue.
  • Someone who has not received regular feedback can get “surprised” at the end of a project, during a tenure review, or during an annual evaluation.
  • People become demotivated when they see others “getting away with” poor behavior.
  • At work, employees have less trust in a manager when that manager does not hold direct reports accountable

Three Types: Planned feedback; Feedback in the moment; Recovering from explosive feedback.

Guidelines for Planned Feedback:

  • Ask permission to provide feedback
  • Express your intention – to be supportive
  • Praise publicly. When you see good work, say it.  Never let good work go unnoticed
  • Make it private when it’s negative, and as possible as you can, make it positive and developmental
  • Be timely and have the conversation as soon as possible, and at most within one week
  • Self-assessment, if possible, should always come first
  • Prepare in advance. Think through your opening remarks
  • Be cool and deliver your message calmly and objectively
  • Use Start, Stop, and Continue method
  • Use the 80/20 rule: 80% future to 20% past focus in feedback
  • Always end on a positive note

The GROW Coaching Model

  • Goal
  • Reality
  • Options
  • Way forward

Resources about Giving Feedback

Some Relevant Articles/Videos

Other Relevant Articles

Published by Timothy Franz

Dr. Franz is a Professor of Industrial and Organizational Psychologist at St. John Fisher College. In addition to his academic work, he also works as an organizational consultant through his independent consulting organization, Franz Consulting. His topical areas of expertise include team leadership, individual and team decision making, improving team performance, and using teams to drive organizational change. Many of his ideas about improving teams are published in his book, titled Group Dynamics and Team Interventions. He is also an experienced applied researcher, specializing in conducting focus groups and individual interviews, designing custom surveys, analyzing employee and workplace data, and evaluating the effectiveness of training programs. Prior to becoming a college professor, Dr. Franz worked for the Wyatt Company (now Towers-Watson), Buck Consultants and Custom Solutions, A London House Consulting Group. Dr. Franz is a member of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Erie Canal Applied Psychology Network. His scientific research has been published in premier journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Journal of Applied Psychology, and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago and his M.A. from the University at Buffalo.

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