It is important for a PM to encourage his team members to give and receive feedback. Feedback are important for team to be cohesive and successful.
When it comes to feedback, people always use sandwich technique. How many times have you heard people tell you something in lines of,
"you are great. you are doing an amazing job. you are mean. it was great working with you". They sandwich a bad thing between two good things about you. This is not feedback. There is nothing positive is going to come out from these kind of conversations. In fact , the types of conversations will have negative effect.
Feedback should be given for two reasons,
1) Improving Effectiveness and
2) Strengthening confidence.
There is nothing like good or bad feedback, only feedback.
When giving feedback,
1) Be specific.
2) Focus on behavior rather than the person
3) Be descriptor rather than judgmental
4) Ask permission
5) Give feedback in private
When receiving feedback
1) Ask for instances if the person tells you something generic
2) Ask for suggestions
3) Treat feedback as a gift :)
Encourage your team members to give and receive feedback.
It will be nice if you all can share your experiences in giving and receiving feedback.
3 comments:
Nice post. It provides in a very short way guidelines that can be used.
> When giving feedback,
>
> 1) Be specific.
> 2) Focus on behavior rather than the person
> 3) Be descriptor rather than judgmental
I would add:
4) When clear why, explain what benefits some different behavior or exactly that type of behavior would make for the person and for the team.
Nice post Siva. I agree with your premise.
I think that the sandwich method of feedback is useful though. Your example is simplistic and suffers from the generalizations that you warn against - not because the feedback is sandwiched, but simply because it's not behavior oriented - "you are great. you are doing an amazing job. you are mean. it was great working with you." This feedback is from a juvenile.
Also, some feedback: the plural of feedback is feedback... not feedbacks with an "s". Here I'm utilizing the "improving effectiveness" wand, rather than the "strengthening confidence" approach.
I particularly like the suggestion of asking for specific examples when you receive general feedback. In my experience, these requests frequently result in silence... or worse - a simple regurgitation of the general feedback. If you're planning to provide feedback, rather than becoming tongue-tied at the request for specifics, I recommend being prepared with examples.
@euluis
Yah that is a very good point
@Adrian
The problem I have with sandwich technique is it is used because we think there is something like good or bad feedback. If everything is just a feedback (not good feedback or bad feedback) there is no way for you can use sandwich technique. If you have to use sandwich technique it is a (bad) smell. Take some time and think about what you are going to say.
Thanks for your feedback , I have updated my post :)
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