Giving Effective Feedback

01/18/2005

"When the moon is not full, the stars shine more brightly." - Bugandan Proverb

Giving Effective Feedback

The Exchange article, "Guidelines for Effective Use of Feedback," provides eleven specific characteristics of effective feedback. Three of these are....

* Feedback should focus on behavior, not the person. In giving feedback, it is important to focus on what a person does rather than on what the person is. For example, you should say to a teacher "You talked considerably during the staff meeting" rather than "You're a loudmouth." According to George F. J. Lehner, "When we talk in terms of 'personality traits' it implies inherited constant qualities difficult, if not impossible, to change. Focusing on behavior implies that it is something related to a specific situation that might be changed" (Lehner). It is less threatening to a teacher to hear comments about her behavior than about her traits.

* Feedback should focus on observations, not inferences. Observations are what we can see or hear in the behavior of another person. Inferences are interpretations we make based on what we hear or see (Lehner). Inferences are influenced by the observer's frame of references and attitudes. As such, they are much less likely to be accurate and to be acceptable to the person observed. Inferences are much more likely to cause defensiveness.

* Feedback should focus on descriptions, not judgments. In describing an event, a director reports an event to a teacher exactly as it occurred. A judgment of this event, however, refers to an evaluation in terms of good or bad, right or wrong, nice or not nice. Feedback which appears evaluative increases defensiveness (Gibb). It can readily be seen how teachers react defensively to judgments which are negative or critical. But it is often believed that positive judgments 'praise' can be very effective as a motivational and learning tool. However, studies have shown that the use of praise has little long-term impact on employees' performance (Baehler). Often praise arouses defensiveness rather than dispelling it. Parents, teachers, and supervisors so often "sugarcoat" criticism with praise ("You had a great lesson today, but ...") that "when we are praised, we automatically get ready for the shock, for the reproof" (Farson).

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