Don’t Avoid It
If someone needs constructive feedback, the worst thing you can do is to avoid it entirely. I made this mistake last year reasoning it “wasn’t the right time” to say what I needed to say and I regret it. I believe their performance would have been much better if I just delivered it.
It’s difficult though. Sometimes you get caught up in being friendly and wanting to not seem too harsh or critical. You convince yourself it’ll probably resolve itself on it’s own. Maybe it will. More likely though, it won’t.
Here are some things I learned and some tips I have for delivering feedback in an effective manner.
Situation, Behavior, Impact
I’m not sure when I first heard about this model for delivering feedback, but it’s been monumentally helpful in guiding how I deliver both positive and constructive feedback. It goes something like this: describe the situation in which you observed a behavior (to encourage or correct) and the impact it had on others.
Example 1:
John, last week before you went on PTO you didn’t push your commits from your local branch. We couldn’t continue with feature development without redoing some of your changes. Peter had to reimplement the upload component.
Example 2:
Samantha, in our last standup you didn’t mention that you were blocked by another team’s work. I could have escalated that blocker at our Scrum of scrums. The other team wasn’t aware their changes broke our integration.
Usually, this is where the one receiving the feedback will offer their point of view, which leads me to my next point.
You Don’t Know What Others Are Going Through
Sometimes constructive feedback is met with understanding. Other times it’s met with something bigger. I had someone on my team going through a huge life change and it was only after delivering feedback that I learned about this.
What that taught me was that people are often stoic and don’t openly reveal things going on in their lives that may affect their performance. It’s important to remain non judgemental and remember people have lives outside of work.
Culture of Feedback
Those with whom I established a culture of feedback early on with had the best performance overall. Those who I delayed giving feedback to were stunted in their growth and development.
I encourage you to give SBI a try.