Giving feedback is a regular part of senior roles in any industry. Useful feedback, however, is more rare. Writing constructive and positive feedback in a way that is actionable will help your team reach the next level.

Principles of Constructive Feedback

1. Specific.
   Add specific examples if possible, and stick to the facts. Never base constructive feedback on an opinion. Base it on facts, events, and examples.
2. Actionable.
   What changes can be made to act on this feedback to for the recipient to improve for next time? Consider providing these action examples.
3. Timely.
   Criticism is most effective when given at the time it is relevant; do not wait until performance evaluation. Critical feedback is most useful long before performance evaluations to give the recipient time to act. Also consider if the individual has already made strides to address the problem. If the person has already made steps to improve in this area, consider moving on.
4. Reasonable.
   Consider if there was anything the individual could have done differently, or could have anticipated. If not, then it is unreasonable feedback.
5. Relevant.
   What are the motivations of the individual? Consider if improving in this area helps the individual with their goals. Some negative feedback is about missing expectations (always relevant), but often it is areas to improve. Be sure the areas to improve are in line with their aspirations.
6. Private.
   Critical feedback should never be given in public. Talk to the recipient or their manager in private. The one exception to this rule is inappropriate behaviour, which is arguably outside the realm of peer feedback. But harassment, discrimination, and hateful comments have no home in the workplace.

Principles of Positive Feedback (including shoutouts!)

1. Specific.
   Add detail about the scenario(s) that prove your point, including stories, metrics, and even technical details.
2. Describes what values were exhibited.
   Think of the formal company/department/team values, and the values that you personally strive to achieve.
3. Describes actions that demonstrated those values.
4. Describes why it was impactful.
   What difference would you notice if the individual did not have great performance? Did their actions drive any metrics, timing, culture shifts, risks averted, morale improvement?
5. Repeatable.
   By focusing on the behaviours, your feedback becomes repeatable. They can reproduce the previously positive outcome by applying the same behaviours in the future.

Gotchas

Be careful with setting unintentional precedents with “atta boy”s. Hard work and overtime should be acknowledged, but consider the scenario in which the hard work took place and the message that you are sending. Was the hard work necessary to compensate for a mistake or putting out some figurative fire? Public praise for that kind of hard work sends a signal that something bad has to occur for there to be opportunities to be recognized for excellent work. Feedback should be repeatable, but in that case to repeat the effect means first breaking something! Consider if the person exceeded the expectations for their role or demonstrated behaviours that fit the company values, and focus on that. If not, acknowledge their hard work in private.

Take care to keep public shoutouts meaningful. It is not the place to recognize an individual for simply doing their job. They could be doing their expected responsibilities, but in a way that exemplifies strong values/behaviours, in which case focus on the values and behaviours rather than the task at hand (See positive feedback principle 2. Describes what values were exhibited). The intent is for the reader to value your words and value your opinion, so try not to diminish the meaning of public praise.

Forget the sandwich approach of balancing negative feedback between positives. Presenting feedback in a manner that expresses you care about the individual personally and have their aspirations in mind is a better method of making the individual feel good about their evaluation.

"[...] treat all feedback exchanges, as much as possible, as though they are a partnership. You are not coming down from a mountaintop of perfection to give advice; rather you're two people working together toward shared goals, and feedback is part of making that partnership healthy and productive. [...] to give good feedback that actually helps an individual or team grow, it's pertinent that they don't feel threatened and feel that it's coming from a place of care."

Writing feedback takes time, especially when you consider all these principles! Remember that when it feels like your manager takes an eternity to write your performance evaluation.

These are ideas that I have learned from my own experiences, from peers who have received lackluster feedback reviews, and from experts who have written about this topic before me. What principles do you feel are important to you? What guidelines do you follow when giving feedback to your peers? Let me know on Twitter @chrismorris.