Constructive Feedback: the ‘sandwich approach’ of giving feedback

Ongoing constructive feedback is essential for letting employees know how they are performing and what is expected of them. The purpose of constructive feedback is to give feedback to an individual in a way that will lead to improvements. It helps individuals identify solutions to the areas of improvements they might have. Therefore, it comes with positive intentions and is used as a supportive communication tool to address specific issues or concerns. This is important as it enhances personal and professional growth of individuals. 

What is constructive feedback?

Some managers only focus on the positive and choose to gloss over the negative, hoping that this will inspire the employees to overcome their shortcomings. Others only focus on the negative and never acknowledge when employees do a great job. 

Both of these approaches are wrong and misleading. Employees who receive the first type of feedback never get to know how they can improve and thus can never achieve their full potential while those who receive the second type of feedback feel ignored, discriminated, and devalued.

Constructive feedback is a healthy blend of praise for achievements and suggestions for improvements. The commonly recommended approach is the sandwich approach, nestling a negative statement between two positive ones. 

It is important for someone looking to give constructive feedback to know how it should be. And this is how I have modeled it:

Specific:

One of the best ways to give constructive feedback is to focus on specifics. Telling someone that their work needs improvement, but not giving any details on what exactly is missing or how it could be fixed, is not helpful to anyone. Whether it is positive or negative, you must provide specific details to the individuals otherwise they won't know what you are looking for. Get straight to the point and make sure not to drag other similar or not relevant incidents into the conversation. Every feedback should focus on just one incident so it has both parties’ full focus.

Sincere:

Since in the sandwich approach of constructive feedback both positive and negative feedback is given to the recipient, it is important that the feedback should be honest, genuine, and clearly communicated. If your approach does not match the context of the feedback, you could send out a mixed message that confuses the recipient. If the feedback is positive, let your converse indicate that you appreciate their efforts. For negative feedback, a more concerned tone will show that you believe the problem should be taken seriously. Try to avoid displaying negative emotions such as anger, sarcasm or disappointment, as these are likely to be perceived as personal criticism.

Timely:

Do not let days pass by before you give someone feedback on their work, especially when it comes to a specific project. Always try to give feedback when it’s fresh in both your and employee’s mind so that the conversation will be relevant and actionable.

Well-prepared:

Take time to prepare for a feedback session. Plan key points of the discussion ahead of time. Use facts, examples and statistics to substantiate both your positive and negative comments.

Gender-neutral:

Discrimination based on gender unfortunately is still present in the workplace. When it comes to giving feedback, it is often observed that managers are significantly more likely to critique female employees and their accomplishments are more likely to be seen as the result of team effort, rather than individual effort. Constructive feedback does not allow room for gender discrimination and focuses on bias free assessment.

A bit negative:

Research has found that while novices prefer positive feedback in order to boost their confidence, once they become experts in a subject area, they prefer negative feedback in order to step up their game. In fact, according to a survey conducted by the Harvard Business Review, 57% of employees prefer corrective feedback over praise/recognition.

Furthermore, according to a Gallup report, an employee who is ignored by a manager is twice as likely to be actively disengaged at work as an employee whose manager focuses on his or her weaknesses.

Be direct but informal:

Try not to use communication tools like email, text message or phone call. All of these technologies, while useful in other situations, are much more open to misinterpretation because they eliminate important context such as vocal tone, body language, and emotional inflection. Find a quiet meeting room where you can have an honest and informal one-on-one discussion with the employee. One-on-one conversations are more dynamic, as both parties can ask questions and dig deeper into the issues at hand.

Praise where it’s due:

Here the sandwich approach comes in action. Weaving some positives among the negatives can be a good way to reassure employees that you are not here only to correct them.

For instance:

“Your sales numbers are rising and are up 10% since last quarter. I think you did a great job!”

Then you can start talking about the area that needs improvement.

“However, we would like you to work more with your team”

This tells the employee that you are not criticizing their overall performance; just a certain aspect of their job needs correction.

Talk about the situation, not the individual:

Constructive feedback focuses more on the outcomes than the employee's personal attributes. It should be about what the individual did rather than who the individual is. “Your presentation is boring” is likely to be taken as an attack that is motivated by personal feelings rather than facts. If it feels like a personal attack, the individual will be more likely to shut down and lose trust in you than to listen to what you have to say. 

Listen:

While giving constructive feedback, make sure that the individual is given a chance to respond. This shows that you are willing to listen to their concerns and interpretation of that specific event. It can also be used as an opportunity for the employee to express their ideas and become part of the solution. A win-win for all!

Be it positive or negative, providing employees with ongoing constructive feedback is one of the most important and powerful employee development tools. Follow these ways to give constructive feedback in a productive, respectful way!