Effective teams with feedback
The art of feedback is quite trivial, as the feedback received can be understood differently from seniority, to cultural background, and even design confidence. Many of these obstacles can be circumvented by providing clear expectations (task and behavioural) and provide the feedback in the same area. Shaming and blaming your team doesn't stop them from making mistakes. It stops them from admitting it.
Below is a good example of giving good task and goal based onboarding feedback for a newly hired designer:
"To succeed in your first three months, focus on building relationships, ramping up on a starter project, and sharing your first design iteration. You may not get the green light right away, but that would be outstanding. For your next meeting, success means framing the options clearly, ensuring that everyone feels heard, and making a decision."
Not only does the above example provide clear understanding of what's expected of the new hire, it does also frame what kind of feedback to expect from the manager.
Task-based feedback
Task-specific feedback is a type of feedback that focuses on the specific behaviour or action that someone has taken, rather than on the person themselves. This kind of feedback is often more effective because it is less personal and more focused on the task at hand. It is also more likely to be remembered and acted upon if it is given promptly, while the action is still fresh in the person's memory.
Unless the task is particularly significant, such as a high-stakes presentation, it is not always necessary to give task-specific feedback face-to-face. Dropping a note via email or chat within the day can be just as effective. This is especially true for tasks that are completed on a regular basis, as it can help to establish a more efficient and streamlined feedback process.
When done well, task-specific feedback becomes a natural and regular part of your day. Your reports will benefit from receiving small doses of coaching on everything you see them do.
For example, you could say something like:
"That research report you shared yesterday was excellent. I especially liked the way you summarized the most important findings at the top. It made the report easy to process. A quick note about your presentation this morning: I noticed that you went straight to the proposal without explaining how you got there. This made it difficult for me to assess why your proposal was the best path. Next time, try spending a few minutes walking through your process and what alternatives you considered."
Behavioural-based feedback
Behavioural-based feedback goes beyond task-specific feedback to provide a deeper level of personalization. It helps people understand how their interests, personalities, and habits affect their ability to have impact.
When you look at many examples of task-specific feedback for a designer, you can start to see patterns emerge. Is the designer a quick or slow decision-maker? Are they a process-oriented thinker or an unconventional thinker? Do they gravitate toward pragmatic or idealistic solutions?
By looking at these patterns, you can start to understand the report writer's unique strengths and areas for development. Behavioural feedback is useful because it goes beyond task-specific feedback to provide a deeper level of personalization. It can help people understand how their interests, personalities, and habits affect their ability to have impact.
When giving behavioural feedback, it is important to be thoughtful and specific. You should support your feedback with examples of the person's behaviour. It is also best to discuss behavioural feedback in person so that the person can ask questions and engage in a conversation.
Behavioural feedback can help people understand how others see them, which may be different from how they see themselves. This can be a difficult conversation to have, but it can be very valuable. At its best, behavioural feedback can help people walk away with a deeper understanding of themselves and how they can be more effective.
Below is a great example of giving behavioural feedback in a constructive manner:
When people ask you questions about your work, you often sound defensive. For example, you replied to Joe's feedback on your illustration with "just trust me." This dismissed her concerns and made you seem less reliable.
Putting it all together
While on day-to-day basis brings a lot of "over-the-desk" feedback it is crucial to take the time with the employee to do thoroughly feedback sessions for this I like to divide them into 2 kinds, both based on same goals and feedbacks.
Half year 360° feedback sessions
These sessions are strongly focused on settings of the employee's goals and evaluating the previous 6 months. If possible, bring in feedback from co-workers to make sure the feedback is clear and have different perspectives taking into account. The main areas 360 meetings are focusing on are:
Review previous 360° expectations, did we reach the shared goal.
A more comprehensive and nuanced view of employee performance
Improve collaboration and communication between manager and employee
Setting new goals for next 6 months
Monthly 360° feedback sessions
Depending on the designers' performance, time in role and seniority, it can be good to have monthly 360° sessions as well to make sure to be able to nudge in the right direction and provide support and clarity if necessary.