We give and receive feedback every day during conversations with work colleagues, family members and friends, even our social media followers. But comments designed to inspire personal and professional improvement can sometimes cause offence.
In this story, we share insight on how you can deliver both positive feedback and negative criticism – and remain on good terms.
Giving feedback? Here’s how to prepare
Late last year Associate Professor in Modern History at UNE, Richard Scully, received a hand-written card from one of his undergraduate history students. The student had just completed a challenging modern history unit on Weimar and Nazi Germany.
“Thank you so much for all your expertise and exceptional teaching …,” it read. “I have enjoyed it immensely and feel much more prepared to teach it to my students … your handling of the topic taught me a lot about how to teach it as well as what to teach.”
For Richard, it was a heart-warming reminder that his teaching “makes a big difference, and gets paid forward by great students”.
“I haven’t received anything that effusive before; it was a very nice surprise,” said Richard who, as an academic, is constantly giving feedback himself. “It’s basically what I do, but there are challenges involved.”
So what advice can he give?
“Feedback must always be constructive,” Richard says. “If something isn’t done well, it’s best not to pull your punches, or else you risk losing the impact of what you need to say. But it’s a balancing act; it’s important to get your point across in a sensitive way and to keep the person motivated and interested in improving.
“People have things going on in their lives that you are completely unaware of, that they may not have discussed or sought support for.
“When giving feedback of any kind, you can’t assume that the person is mentally well-prepared to receive negative feedback and has the emotional equipment to deal with it at that particular moment. I always keep that in the back of my mind, and think about what I would want to hear and how I would want to hear it.”
Richard tries to avoid bald statements, aims to structure and express the feedback well, and takes his role as a teacher seriously.
“Teaching is about the student and their learning, but there is also a need to instruct; otherwise people will not move out of their comfort zones and reflect philosophically on their tasks and performance,” he says.
“History is, after all, a discipline that is bigger than them and me. During my career I have also had to learn best-practice methods and approaches, and the only way that has happened is by taking on board the feedback I’ve received.”
And it doesn’t stop with the giving of feedback. “There is always the opportunity for the person to seek clarification, to challenge your opinion, and that’s very good, in my view, because it’s reflective.
“Any kind of engagement with the feedback provided is a win, for me. But I do recommend that people sleep on it before they respond, so they don’t react emotionally, rather than rationally.”
Share with us examples of feedback you have received and its impact.
