Five Characteristics of Good Feedback (2024)

March 20, 2024 by Christine

Feedback is crucial for helping your team members grow, but it’s often confused with criticism. Sometimes, the most well-intentioned advice can sound like judgment if presented incorrectly. That’s why you need to learn the characteristics of good feedback. By applying them, you can ensure every feedback session (formal and informal) is successful!

Why Giving Good Feedback Is Important

The regular delivery of solid, constructive feedback is integral to any team. It gives employees an outside perspective of their performance, attitude, and potential. Discussing team members’ strengths and weaknesses with them is an essential step toward helping them become the best employees they can be.

On top of that, understanding and applying the characteristics of good feedback also directly affects you as a business owner.

Here are a few reasons why giving helpful input is vital:

• It improves performance.

Good feedback positively impacts performance by helping employees understand how they’re doing and how they can improve. Without it, team performance can further decline. But with it, they can be encouraged to go the extra mile and do better in their roles.

When you approach feedback with the mindset that it’s an opportunity for team members to learn, you’ll build their confidence and help them succeed.

• It increases morale.

Whether you’re recognizing a great job or addressing concerns, your approach to delivering feedback affects morale. If giving feedback isn’t handled carefully, the process can strain relationships. Done right, however, it can result in a more positive attitude among your team.

When employees receive constructive feedback, it shows that their efforts matter and their position is important. This recognition boosts morale and motivates employees to strive for excellence.

• It enhances leadership skills.

Consistent feedback isn’t just good for your team; it’s good for you as the business owner. It allows you to develop your communication skills and coaching abilities. Understanding and applying the characteristics of good feedback enables you to become a true leader for your team.

How to Approach a Feedback Session the Right Way

First things first—a feedback session won’t be successful if you aren’t clear about your objectives going in. So, prepare carefully for the meeting. The aim is to create a safe, productive environment to deliver input.

1 ) Make sure you can explain why you’re giving feedback.

Before talking to the team member, ask yourself why you need to provide feedback if it’s not just an opportunity to acknowledge great work. Do you have advice to help this person in their role and improve the company? Or do you just want to address how they do things differently?

If a team member doesn’t understand the purpose of the feedback, they’re likely to feel defensive or be mistrustful of the process. And in such cases, they may tune out even the best advice or ignore it altogether.

This is more likely to happen if you don’t make it immediately clear whether the purpose of the meeting is to provide helpful feedback or to discipline them. If they assume the worst, they may suspect you are building a case to terminate their employment.

2 ) Compile any information relevant to your feedback.

It’s also essential to gather and review the facts that prompted the meeting. This will help you be clear on approaching the discussion and communicating the changes you expect the team member to make. Compiling relevant information can ensure that the meeting flows smoothly. And having a few examples to reference can provide greater clarity.

Keep in mind that feedback is most effective when it’s in service of a larger goal. So, approach the conversation as a chance to give recommendations that will help this person succeed in the future.

5 Characteristics of Good Feedback to Apply

Once you’re prepared for your meeting, you want to be sure to present your feedback in the best way possible. In doing so, you can increase the chances of your team member applying that input moving forward. So, here are five characteristics of good feedback to keep in mind.

1. Good Feedback Is Timely

One of the most critical characteristics of good feedback is timeliness. You want your input to be relevant to your team member’s current performance. So, deliver your feedback in a timely manner—don’t wait too long! In six weeks, you and the team member may have already forgotten what happened. Moreover, the longer you wait to address an issue or offer recommendations, the harder it will be for your team member to make the necessary changes.

That said, you also need to wait for the opportune moment to give feedback. Telling someone their presentation is going poorly while it’s in progress is embarrassing for everyone. Create time for a one-on-one meeting away from distractions to have a calm and productive conversation (not a lecture).

2. It's Insightful

The purpose of feedback is to provide insight and remind team members of their strengths. Let them know how to complement those strengths with new skills. Always end by noting something about their conduct or performance that they excelled at.

However, that doesn’t mean you should sugarcoat it in the hope of making them feel better. Taking that route will only confuse them.

• On the one hand, they may think you don’t take it seriously.
• On the other, they may be distrustful of your intentions.

That’s why it’s crucial to be clear and specific about exactly what you expect them to improve without being judgmental. Good feedback means providing insight.

Frame your feedback as a learning opportunity. Everyone has experienced the feeling of failure many times in their career. So, let them know they aren’t alone in making a mistake or falling short of a goal. The important thing is to understand how to deal with setbacks and to use them as an opportunity to improve.

It’s difficult to know how people might receive feedback. Some people will react positively, but others may ignore it. If you create a culture that encourages learning and growing, your team members will be more likely to welcome effective feedback and look forward to the experience.

3. Good Feedback Is Constructive (Not Critical)

Begin by asking the team member how they feel they’re doing, especially surrounding the particular event or project. Use that answer to get a sense of whether they are open to further discussion. It’s possible the team member already knows what needs improvement and will welcome suggestions.

Remember that you may not always be the right person to talk to. An immediate supervisor or someone the employee has a good working relationship with might be a better choice.

There is a world of difference between telling someone they aren’t a good salesperson and informing them they aren’t hitting their targets.

So, one of the essential characteristics of good feedback is focusing on performance and how the team member can take steps to improve it.

Focusing on the problem at hand and not assuming they are incompetent or malicious will allow you to get to the root and find a solution. More importantly, you will have an employee who leaves the room with their self-esteem intact and who is motivated to succeed. Constructive feedback gets results; criticism doesn’t.

4. It's Collaborative

Being part of a valued team requires collaboration and cooperation at all times. Employees have different perspectives, ideas, and experiences. After all, that’s why you hired them in the first place.

However, failing to acknowledge a team member’s ideas may lead you to miss valuable information that could improve their performance. And in a worst-case scenario, they may opt to leave. According to recent statistics, 41% of employees have left a job because they felt they weren’t being heard.

So, before launching into your list of expectations, make sure you fully understand the situation as they see it.

• Do they think they would benefit from training in a specific area?
• Were they assigned to a challenging project they didn’t feel ready for?
• Is something outside of work affecting their ability to perform well?
• Is there something happening in the market that explains a drop in sales?

Knowing these answers will help you find an effective solution together, such as overcoming a seemingly insurmountable problem or taking a different approach.

Moreover, we’re all human; no matter how well we reason, we also have emotions. If your team member doesn’t feel you’re listening, it will only frustrate them. It may even be beneficial to let them vent their frustrations. It’s like a pressure cooker. Speaking out about a problem that seems to be controlling someone’s life can make it evaporate.

If they have differences with a colleague or even a supervisor, you may be able to do more than you think to resolve the issue. It’s not about taking sides. It’s about making your team function properly.

Of course, it’s important to set boundaries defining what you are willing to discuss.

It’s also worth remembering an inevitable power dynamic exists between a supervisor and a team member. They may not be ready to volunteer information without prompting. If they’re not forthcoming, open the floor for them to share.

The bottom line is that collaboration is one of the vital characteristics of good feedback. It’s about working together to find solutions that everyone buys into. And if they do, they’ll be much more motivated to make the changes you expect of them.

5. Good Feedback Is Actionable

Finally, it’s time to leave with a positive tone and define how the future should look. After discussing what happened, provide an example of how the ideal situation looks. Walk through how it might go in the future.If the feedback warrants follow-up, create specific goals to work toward. One of the characteristics of good feedback is that the advice is actionable. So, you need to develop a simple, actionable plan that clearly identifies the following:

• Performance issues that need improvement
• What the expectations are
• How to achieve the mutually agreed goals
• A timeline to reach the targets

Don’t forget to set a follow-up meeting to review progress on the action plan and revise it if necessary. The plan is not cast in stone or a tool to shame employees if they don’t step up. It’s a guide to help them succeed and get the results you need.

Final Thoughts

It’s easy to talk about being a team when things are going well—everyone has a positive attitude and outstanding performance. But if someone is struggling to perform as required, it is just as easy to forget and consider them a problem that you have to fix. As long as they are part of the team, they should be treated that way.

The truth is that your team members are just people with emotions, opinions, and experiences you can’t control. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t have expectations of them. After all, the rest of the team depends on them to get the job done.

Feedback should be a two-way process focused on ways to help them meet their job requirements. Focus on performance, respect the team member’s ideas, and agree on a plan to improve. Most importantly, apply the characteristics of good feedback mentioned above each time you sit down with a team member.

Ideally, they’ll leave the meeting motivated to do a good job, with a firm understanding of how they can achieve your mutually agreed goals. That way, your team can work together to help your business succeed.

Filed Under: Analytics Tagged With: culture, employee morale, employee relations