What makes feedback most effective? Share your thoughts to receive a new kudos badge!

[Angelie Stephens]

Feedback can be really helpful for our growth, and making sure it’s effective as well as constructive can be a delicate balance to strike.

As part of our Work Better, Together video series, we explored effective feedback with The Southern California Cricket Association Youth cricket club. Check out the video below to find out more about Coach Mumtaz Yousuf and his players, and see how they have created a culture of feedback to succeed.

What do you think makes feedback effective? Do you agree with the tips in the video? What other tips do you have for sharing effective feedback?

Add your comments below and you’ll earn a Work Better Together kudos badge! 🌟

[Samuel Gatica _ServiceRocket_]

Hi @Angelie Stephens 

To me, effective feedback is all about being specific, actionable, and timely, with a focus on behaviors rather than personal traits. It's great to strike a balance between positive notes and constructive suggestions while keeping things clear and using a supportive tone. Ideally, feedback should be concise, aimed at encouraging improvement, and include follow-up to ensure progress, which helps foster growth, trust, and better performance along the way.

Best regards

Sam

[Angelie Stephens]

Thank you for sharing, I especially like what you've pointed out here about the focusing behaviours rather than personal traits @Samuel Gatica _ServiceRocket_!

[Jamey Austin]

100% Samuel. I like the emphasis on being thoughtful and helpful. When there's real care involved, the process can be really inspiring.

[Sara Beyer]

You've hit the nail right on the head. Specific, actionable, timely. I couldn't agree more!

[Howard Hudson]

I agree with the three points in the video and I would add that effective feedback needs to be personalized. It’s not helpful for me, for example, to hear broad generalizations, even if they’re positive or negative. It’s sort of the inverse of SMART goals. I like feedback that is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. 
The coach telling the batter to use his legs was that type of feedback. 

[Jamey Austin]

Yes, I think it's really important to be specific. If we "hide" behind a platitude or generality, feedback doesn't ring true. Personalized doesn't necessarily mean personal, right? It's all about care and intention.

[Stephen_Lugton]

Hi @Angelie Stephens 

I always see feedback as an opportunity for growth and improvement, and as @Samuel Gatica _ServiceRocket_ says, it should be about a situation rather than about the individual.

One tip from me is to make sure that feedback is given in the right circumstances; I managed one developer who hated to receive feedback in public, so I had to make sure that, as far as reasonably possible, any feedback given to him was one on one.

[Angelie Stephens]

Great tip @Stephen_Lugton ! So important to adapt the feedback to the person where possible. 

[Jamey Austin]

Very important tip.

[Carolyn Carney]

Feedback is important because it helps people learn and grow, and understand where they are in relation to expectations and objectives. To ensure especially effective feedback, as the one providing the feedback, we should also follow up, offering continuing support. And when receiving feedback, we should actively seek follow up feedback to help meet those expectations and objectives.   

[Ashish Mani Tripathi]

Feedback has two sides, postive and negative. For successful business both type of feedback is important because it tells what's going good so far and what they can better.

A good feedback should be complete and elaborate. If required add some supporting documents like screen shot, recording etc. this will help business to understand the situation of the customer and do further research.

Same way customers should take 2 mins and provide geniune feedback about the product, service they used.

Feedback process is two way process, customers should take responsibility to provide geniune feedback and provider should take feedbacks seriously. If both the sides people under their accountability then only end experience will reach its maximum level and everyone can enjoy them.

Having said that please make sure we give our feedback on the atlassian's product awareness sessions, new changes and etc. that will help #atlassian to provide it's customer better services.

Thanks and Regards,

Ashish

[Shivam Sharma]

I completely agree—customers should definitely take responsibility for providing genuine feedback. Ultimately, it's in their best interest, as honest feedback allows the service or product provider to improve in areas that matter most to them.

At our company, we always strive to gather valuable feedback from our users and run multiple experiments to encourage genuine responses. If anyone has suggestions for more effective ways to collect feedback, particularly in a service-oriented industry, I’d love to hear them.

[Anne Saunders]

I find that providing context or "the why" for a request I'm making or feedback I'm providing helps the recipient take it less personally, e.g.

Instead of:
"I noticed the your support tickets for last week didn't have the requesting departments listed in them."

I try to say something more like:
"It's important that all support tickets list the requesting department because process improvement relies on which departments make what kinds of requests to target wonky processes, and the client success team uses that info to plan trainings and lunch and learns."

(This is a 100% made up example scenario kinda modeled on my past life at a Big Company)

[Shivam Sharma]

Hi @Angelie Stephens

In my experience, feedback has been a key driver of personal and professional growth. I always welcome input from my colleagues on any task I perform. Early in my career, I made mistakes as I was still learning, but constructive feedback from my supervisors helped me improve. Over time, I became more confident and capable of completing my tasks with fewer errors. Feedback truly makes a difference!

[Susan Waldrip]

Hi @Angelie Stephens , I thought all the tips in the video for feedback were good, and a lot of the tips in the posted answers here are good, too. A tip I learned is to ensure that you as the person giving feedback are in the right frame of mind to give it -- for example, if someone makes a mistake or forgets something and you're mad about it, give yourself a minute or two to cool off and remember that the feedback you give is for positive effect, not punishment.

Another tip for situations where you have time to get to know the feedback recipient(s), is to learn how they best respond to feedback since different people learn and take in information in different ways -- for example, some can listen or learn better if they're told, others if they're shown, others both, and still others by giving guidance and letting them "do". It makes you a better mentor/coach/teacher and a better listener/learner.

[Angelie Stephens]

Thank you for sharing, @Shivam Sharma ! Very interesting to read your thoughts on this 😊

@Susan Waldrip these are both great tips you've shared. I especially like the one about making sure you're in the right frame of mind to give it - definitely one to keep in mind! 

[Haunani Nakabara]

Agreed, effective feedback is shared as soon as possible, specific, and actionable.  And when there is feedback that may be hard to receive, a foundation of trust prior to providing/receiving is crucial.  It might not be fun but I know it's important and it's easier to digest when receiving feedback from someone I know is committed to my development.

[Barbara Szczesniak]

I want to second the "shared as soon as possible" element. Waiting until someone's yearly review to give feedback on something they did 8 months earlier is not helpful whatsoever.

[John Funk]

At a previous organization where I was, we had a saying that "To be unclear is to be unkind." Feedback needs to be very direct and to the point. You can do that with empathy, but don't beat around the bush - make sure the person knows the point you are getting to. 

[Angelie Stephens]

Love this expression @John Funk ! I'm going to keep this in mind 😊

[Jamey Austin]

Yes, honesty is essential. That's how genuine trust is established. Always with the right intentions, and always with care. But we sense when someone isn't being truthful. 

[Barbara Szczesniak]

I think an important point is to lay the groundwork for feedback when you first meet/start working with someone. I have had many contract positions in my career, so I have had a lot of first days. I developed a conversation I used, especially if I was sharing an office with someone that went like:

"If I'm doing something that bugs you or that you think I'm doing the wrong way, tell me. I cannot read your mind, and I don't know you well enough to be doing it on purpose as a joke."

I feel this was a casual way to let them know that I am aware that not everyone gets my way of doing things or sense of humor and that I am welcome to feedback and discussions. It also gave them an opportunity to let me know their feelings on the subjects. 

[Jamey Austin]

I really like laying the groundwork. What a great piece of advice.

[Gautham]

Effective feedback is the one which is honest and actionable for the receiver. A vague general feedback is more of a detractor than something actionable. 

Most of the times, coach has to provide feedback in iterations to reach the desired state. Like the cricket analogy, one-by-one the stance, leg movement, bat grip so on has to be fixed to reach the desired outcome of a perfect cricket shot.

[Dick]

Feedback is best served in a safe environment. Having a laugh about a fail isn't bad, as long as you learn something from it. The latter could be something like a different approach to a problem, as long as you're clear to each other what the goals and expectations are.

[Teodora V _Fun Inc_]

I agree with @Samuel Gatica _ServiceRocket_ on a hundred percent. Good, actionable feedback is the specific feedback that is presented in a non-judgemental way and suggests actual improvements.

Feedback sessions can easily harm the environment when made without a clear retrospective structure (why am I giving you this negative/positive feedback, and how could you improve/keep rocking).

High-quality work is a child of many unsuccessful iterations, so the proper feedback curve would decide how fast and productive this work would continue.

[Dave Mathijs]

Hi @Angelie Stephens 

Feedback is for me effective when it's straight-to-the-point, neat, not on the rocks, not in 4 or 5 steps ("sandwich" technique)

If you don't say it, probably nothing will happen.

"Once in a while, you have to enjoy the gentle sound of breaking glass."

[Tomislav Tobijas _Koios_]

For me, as many have already mentioned, a key element of effective feedback is getting straight to the point—whether it’s positive or constructive. When it comes to positive feedback, I value it when people are specific about what I did well (e.g., what worked during a project and what I should continue doing).

On the other hand, constructive feedback is equally important. Recently, a colleague addressed an issue with how I handled client-based changes on a project. It was the first time someone directly told me, 'You shouldn’t have done that.' I didn’t take it personally but instead saw it as an opportunity to find a better solution or approach for the future. We resolved the situation quickly, and I really appreciated the open, direct communication. This experience made me realize how valuable it is to have a safe environment where feedback is shared openly, without the need to 'dance around' the topic. I've since encouraged others to feel comfortable offering feedback on my work now and moving forward.

[Maria Ginsbourg]

Hi @Angelie Stephens, 

Here are three tips for asking for feedback:

1. Be specific with your request: Instead of asking, "What do you think?" focus on particular areas like "I'm working on a draft of a slide deck. It's in the early phases, so please ignore the visuals, the spelling and grammar. I want to hear what you think of the overall message and of how I structured the content?".  This helps you get targeted, actionable feedback.

2. Provide context: Explain what you're aiming for or any challenges you're facing. When people know your goals, they can offer more relevant insights, rather than giving broad or off-topic suggestions. or "The final for this project is due in two hours. Can you check for deal breakers i.e. broken links, misspelled product or people names etc " 

3. Encourage constructive criticism: Let people know you're open to both positive and negative feedback by asking, "What’s one thing I could improve?" This sets the tone for honest, helpful responses instead of vague praise.

[Andy Gladstone]

In my experience, there are (6) key points to providing effective feedback

1. Separate the people from the problem. Unless, of course, the person IS the problem.
2. Don't make it personal, keep it professional.
3. Make it clear how critical the feedback being provided is to the role or responsibility of the individual.
4. Resist the urge to try and leave the conversation on a positive note so that YOU feel more comfortable. I like @John Funk's note - the be unclear is to be unkind. So often the one delivering the feedback feels the need to leave the conversation feeling less 'dirty' for having provided feedback and will spend the last few minutes sugar coating things. Don't. 
5. After providing the feedback, summarize it. Then put it in writing and ensure that expectations for how the feedback is to be used and addressed are clear.
6. Set a follow-up meeting right away so that both parties have a clear timeframe for when the feedback will be reviewed.

I have found that anytime I veer from any of the above tenets the feedback loop is not effective. But when I stay on track there is almost a 100% success rate for the feedback getting the person/team/project back on track.

[Alyssa Towns]

I agree with the tips in the video, and Coach Mumtaz Yousuf appears to be doing a great job leading these teams! 

In line with Tip #2: Lead with empathy, I've found that feedback is most effective when it meets people where they are. Sometimes, we offer feedback that aligns with how we prefer to receive it rather than considering the recipient's style, preferred delivery, and perspectives. Like all forms of communication, understanding your audience (in this case, the person receiving the feedback) is one of the best ways to deliver personalized, impactful, and resonant feedback.