The Gift of Effective Feedback

As Christmas gets nearer, we tend to think more and more about ‘giving’: High Street shops and online emporiums seduce us into buying more gifts to give to friends and family; we give generously to charities; and we give Christmas greetings to business colleagues, friends and acquaintances we like in the form of cards, calls, and even emails.

Most people find these forms of giving fairly easy and pleasant, especially in the holiday season. But when we think about giving feedback in our day-to-day lives, suddenly the concept of giving becomes onerous, tedious, and in some cases, downright scary! Yet with the right motivation and strategies, feedback can be one of the most valuable forms of giving that we have to offer.

Without feedback, it can be difficult to measure our own effectiveness or the impact that we have on those around us. Effective feedback helps us judge where our strengths lie, which can help prioritise the ways we use them. With the right sort of feedback, we can examine our development needs and decide what actions we should take to improve our performance in the workplace.

Feedback is a natural part of life – we give it all the time, in all sorts of contexts – and in the workplace, it is one of our most important tools.So it’s essential for us to use it effectively to improve our working lives.

Do you have any tips or tricks for giving and receiving effective feedback?Do you have any positive or negative examples of how feedback changed your workplace? If so, please share, I’d love to hear them.