10: The Way to Give Constructive Feedback

In his book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, leadership coach Marshall Goldsmith warns against the habit of leaders adding too much value and stifling the motivation of an employee’s independent ideas. He says that when we start improving an employee’s idea, “You may have improved the content of my idea by 5 percent, but you’ve reduced my commitment to executing it by 50 percent, because you’ve taken away my ownership of the idea.”

Does it even make sense to give someone feedback? Here’s a helpful guide.

Minor issue?

• If the person is aware: ask what they plan to do to resolve it

• If the person is unaware: let it go

Major issue?

• If the person is aware : ask questions and help brainstorm

• If the person is unaware – redirect by using EXPECTATION -> EXAMPLE -> EMPOWER

Saying something “nice” first can get us in trouble as a leader:

• It doesn’t sound sincere, since it’s often done only before constructive feedback

• It’s not credible since the leader will often fail to cite evidence and examples

• The leader ends up gliding over the real issue and the person never really hears the constructive feedback

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