Giving Feedback (and key advice on receiving!)

When and how do you give feedback? Giving feedback is best done in a timely manner. I’ve had feedback given to me during a half year or a year end review along the lines of ‘In January, there was a meeting where you…’. Ok, I’m grateful for this, but this was 6 months ago. I can’t act on this, and I don’t remember the context.

I always recommend my team, colleagues, and clients get ongoing feedback so it feels natural, and it’s not only associated with an evaluation, but used as a genuine opportunity to continually improve.

Make your feedback:

• Timely
• Useful
• Situational based
• Critique actions or behaviours, not judgements on character or ability

I don’t include models here like the Sandwich approach. As Forbes comments, the Sandwich Approach Is Manipulative—And Undermines Trust. The main issue with the sandwich approach is that it’s actually manipulation. In brief, you’re manipulating someone by distracting them from the main point—your constructive criticism.

I focus on five effective and proven models for giving feedback, alongside that difficult task of receiving feedback.

Five Models for Giving Feedback

The SBI Model (Situation-Behavior-Impact)

• Situation: Describe the specific situation where the feedback is relevant.
• Behavior: Detail the behavior that needs to be addressed.
• Impact: Explain the impact of this behavior on the team, project, or organization.

Phrasing feedback according to this model ensures you clearly outline both the context and the content of your feedback.

Although this model can be used for both positive and negative feedback, it does not include a recommendation for future action. Therefore, Clandestine Coaching recommend using the SBI feedback model for positive rather than negative feedback.

The STAR Feedback Model (Situation-Task-Action-Result)

STAR is similar to SBI. By delivering your feedback with the STAR technique, you explain the entire scope of the situation and its context, rather than just mentioning if a task went well or not.

?? - Situation: Describe the situation (or context) in which something happened.

?? - Task: Zoom in on the specific task in question that you would like to provide feedback on.

?? - Action: Explain what action the recipient took in the specified situation.

?? - Result: What was the outcome of the actions of the recipient, and how did it affect others?

The Pendleton Feedback Model (A personal favourite)

The Pendleton feedback model aims to create a two-way feedback system, rather than one person just giving another person feedback.

• Ensure the recipient is ready to receive feedback
• Ask the recipient how they feel the situation went or how their behaviour was
• Ask the recipient what went well
• Tell the recipient what went well
• Ask the recipient what could be improved
• Tell the recipient what could be improved
• Together, form an action plan to ensure the discussed improvements are implemented/actioned

The BOOST Model

The BOOST method specifically wants you to provide both positive and negative feedback in one go.

• Balanced: It starts by giving positive feedback as well as addressing points that can be improved. According to the BOOST model, you can never have just one of the two.
• Objective: Focus on behaviours and actions, not on their personality traits or your personal preferences.
• Observed: The feedback you give should be something you witnessed first-hand, rather than something you heard from others. This step is sometimes also referred to as “owned”.
• Specific: Phrase your observations in such a way that they are clear, concise, and specific. No waffling or beating around the bush.
• Timely: Lastly, don’t wait till the annual review to bring up your feedback. Give it frequently, continuously, and, ideally, at the first possible opportunity after you’ve observed the behaviour.

The 360 Degree Feedback Model

The 360-degree feedback model, which goes beyond just giving someone a one-off piece of feedback. You may have heard of this model as multi source assessment, multi source feedback, or multi-rater feedback.? This is also good for less attributable feedback, so can feel more balanced.

The 360-degree feedback model aims to collect feedback from a variety of sources and collates that information to provide someone with a highly detailed performance evaluation.

1. Collect feedback on someone’s performance from as many sources as possible, generally done through a survey. Sources can include their colleagues, line managers, C-suite management, subordinates, external clients, or even customers.
2. Always include a self-evaluation (self-feedback) as part of the process as well.
3. The recipient’s direct manager organizes a meeting with the recipient to go through the provided feedback.
4. The recipient’s performance is assessed based on this 360-degree feedback, and together with the manager a plan for future development is outlined based on the feedback provided.

Receiving Feedback

While giving useful feedback can be hard, it can be even harder receiving feedback.? Here is some advice to make receiving feedback that little bit easier:

? Active Listening

Focus fully on the speaker, understand their message, respond thoughtfully, and remember what was said.

? Open-Mindedness

Be open to new ideas and perspectives, and consider the feedback without immediately reacting defensively.? You don’t need to respond in the moment.

? Clarification

Ask questions to ensure you fully understand the feedback. This can help in identifying specific actions for improvement.

? Reflect and Act

Take time to reflect on the feedback received, and then plan and implement actions based on that feedback to make improvements.

If this is useful and you’d like to discuss more, please feel free to reach out for an informal conversation.

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