Although I recently posted about feedback, today I have another excellent source to share with you on this topic. Giving Feedback? Don’t Make These 10 Mistakes by Alison Green 
pulls together some common traps managers tend to fall into when giving (or not giving) feedback. They are:
- Giving more critical than positive feedback.
- Avoiding the conversation until you’re frustrated.
- Getting so caught up in being tactful that your message gets lost.
- Not being kind.
- Not being specific.
- Making feedback a special event.
- Waiting for a formal performance evaluation.
- Not explaining consequences.
- Not putting criticism in context.
- Not giving feedback at all.
Alison Green writes the no-nonsense blog Ask a Manager, and if you’re not already following her, you really must. And you really must read this full post, not just the list of 10 things above. Giving feedback is a fine art, that must be carefully practiced and honed. Anyone who says I’m a good manager (or boss, or supervisor, or etc.), but I’m not good at feedback (or evaluations, or hard conversations, or etc.) is not a good manager. Right?
Photo © 2011 opensourceway, Flickr. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
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