I really value direct and honest feedback. To many times I’ve had bosses tell me, “you’re doing fine, don’t change a thing!” Now I’m not perfect and I know it, so that sort of feedback just isn’t useful to me. Surely, I can do something to improve, and I’m counting on my boss to help me get better.
Over at Fast Company magazine, Drake Baer gives some great advice on giving useful feedback.
What’s it like to work without any feedback? To JetBlue chairman Joel Peterson, it’s like “driving a car with no speedometer, learning to cook without ever tasting your food, or playing basketball without a scoreboard.”
But simply giving feedback isn’t enough: If the commentary is vague and constructively critiquing un-constructively negative, he says, then there won’t be a path for improvement. Without specificity, the feedback will be for naught.
You’ll want to read it all.