How you deliver feedback is just as important as the feedback you are providing.

Giving feedback to another person is never easy. It can be difficult for you, as the manager, to deliver and it can be uncomfortable for the person receiving your feedback. When offering someone feedback it is common to focus on the issues and the shortcomings you have observed, and that is where things can go south. Quickly. Focusing on the things that could have gone better often results in a demotivating and defensive conversation. As human we have a penchant for finding fault; we’re programmed to notice the negatives more than the positives. We focus on the bad versus the good. It actually makes sense that we divert most of our attention to finding the shortcomings of another when giving them feedback; it’s easier for someone with more experience to spot the mistake and highlighting it gives us the chance to showcase our superior knowledge. This approach is not the most effective way to help someone achieve a better level of performance. It seems to be an accepted truth that fixing someone’s weaknesses alone will significantly improve their performance. This is not true. It’s a myth at best.

It is my belief that people’s potential for growth comes from discovering and developing their strongest skills, attributes and prevalent talents. Focusing on someone’s strengths and helping them amplify it further puts them in a better mindset and position to progress. Positive feedback also builds confidence and we all need confidence to push ourselves to the next level. Now, this doesn’t mean that you pat someone on the back for good performance and turn a blind eye to the areas they came up short. Of course you should highlight opportunities for development and help improve areas of weakness. The point here though is that you shouldn’t do that at the expense of highlighting their strengths. Feedback needs balance. It’s like a diet, you have a healthy diet when all the main food groups are included. It is the proportions of each food group that count, and it’s no different for giving feedback; you need the positives. When offering someone feedback it’s important to weight your feedback toward the positives.

Let us share with you a simple feedback formula we have developed that allows you to share a balanced view of someone’s performance but keeping the focus on their strengths more than their weaknesses. We call it the 3-2-1 guide to giving feedback.

3 things you’re doing well

Highlight the 3 biggest strengths you observed. Share why these 3 things worked. Educate why these things are strengths. You can even use this moment as an opportunity to brainstorm ways to amplify these strengths.

2 opportunities you may find useful

Highlight 2 things that you observed where you think the individual could have achieved even more. Offer these as suggestions; your intent here is to inspire new ideas and opportunities for the individual to learn from. You are opening their minds to what could be possible. This is the area where you can highlight a couple of areas that went less well for the individual; this is also the space for you to share the main weaknesses you perceived in their performance.

1 area of focus that will be the most meaningful

What is the singular thing the individual could focus on in order to improve their performance? This takes a little thought from you. You may opt to suggest focusing on enhancing a strength further or you may offer that improving upon an area of weakness may be the most beneficial.

The 3-2-1 Guide to Giving Feedback is structured to put more emphasis on the positive aspects of someone’s performance while also offering clarity on the action to take.

Try it – and let us know how you get on!