What is a good feedback?

March 16, 2021

This week we are in Paris, France, on the magnificent Place Vendôme. Why? First of all because t is a key luxury shopping location, especially for watches and Jewelry brands, from Cartier to Breguet, from Hublot to Van Cleef & Arpels. Paris is also the city where I received my first decisive feedbacks. Giving a feedback, during a training or on the sales floor for example, is a particularly important skill. In order to maximize its efficiency, there are a certain rules to respect. So what is a good feedback?

Goal

What is the goal of the feedback? It is either to reinforce a positive behavior, or to induce a behavioral change. In the latter case it can thus be delicate, because certain employees have a hard time to accept that they need to change.

We are “wired” to focus on negative points

The major challenge we face as human beings is that our brain works in such a way that we are looking for abnormalities in our environment. It was initially designed to ensure our survival, but today it translates into focusing on what is “wrong”. As a coach, a trainer or a manager, we have to be aware of this tendency, and balance it when giving a feedback.

The setup

During a training the feedback has to be made in front of others, it is part of the learning process and we will see how hereunder. In a management context on the contrary, it should be done without witness, but it does not have to be too formal either, in the manager’s office and seated. A rather informal setting means you can give feedbacks more often, on a lighter tone. Deep behavior changes need a level of frequency to happen.

Structure of a good feedback

First stage

During a training session, the first stage consists in asking the participant who performed (a presentation, a speech, a role play) to give their own feeling about the performance. The trainee is generally his or her first own critic, and it requires them an effort to focus on the positive side. The moderator will then ask his or her opinion to the potential other participant (in a role play) and then to the rest of the group, ending by his or her own feedback.

Second stage

The second stage is dedicated to improvement points (we do not talk about “negative points”, to remain constructive). The trainer asks to the trainee “If you do it again, what would you do differently?”. This process helps the learner leave a judgmental posture. Focusing on the future helps him or her distancing from his own actions and words. The moderator then proceeds the same way as he did on the positive points, involving the partner, other participants and him or herself in the feedback, always using positive and nonjudgmental words.

Third stage

The final stage will focus on the action plan the trainee will set up to anchor the change in their day-to-day work. The learner generally find solutions by him or herself but you can also suggest ideas, they will be much welcome.

In a management situation the stages are the same ones, but the process involves only the employee and the manager. Be very specific, there is nothing more demoralizing than a manager asking to be “more open” or “nicer with colleagues”.