Feedback Strategies
The first article I read was "How to Give Feedback Without Sounding Like a Jerk". I loved this article. In upper level courses, we are often required to peer review or give feedback in discussion groups. You want to be helpful, but most people really don't want to be a jerk about it because they don't want to hear feedback from a jerk themselves. This article talked about the "feedback sandwich" where you give praise, then the real feedback (negative stuff), then more positive thoughts so the person doesn't hate you. While that sounds good, most people are going to see right through that. The article goes through steps to do instead and has some pretty good advice.
The second article I read was "Why so Many Managers Avoid Giving Praise". This one intrigued me and I know for sure I have been accused of not giving praise myself in my last job. I was always of the belief that if you weren't getting yelled at or told what you did wrong, then everything was okay. It's how I was raised & how I've always been handled at jobs. I had a fellow employee come to me at my last job & say how she was raised on "atta girls" and how one went a long way with her. She said that her team would appreciate it if I would tell them if we got praise from a customer on an order. I told her sorry, I was never treated that way in my life & didn't really believe in it myself. Here's the other problem. I'm the one dealing with the customers. I only hear from a customer if something is wrong with their order. If they keep ordering (and paying!) and you don't hear any problems with it, then I assume things are going okay. I really didn't feel like I could pass along praise when I really wasn't hearing anything from the customers. I just figured it was a "we do our jobs, we get paid & get to keep our jobs" sort of situation. The article really cemented in my mind why I handled things the way I did with the production team, but it also let me see that I could handle it better. But it still doesn't explain what to do when you're not getting praise to pass along.
I think for me, feedback is a tricky thing. I hate giving feedback, especially bad. Even with good feedback, I worry that people will think it's fake, or even worse say "well what does she know?!" I just had to turn in feedback in another course yesterday for a project group. One of the girls was a different major than the other 2 of us in the group. The lecture material was more geared to her major that week so she blasted the other student and I for including something in our project that the material said was irrelevant in this day & age. The problem was, for our major, it's still completely relevant. So in my feedback of the other student with my major I really tried to encourage him that what he had included was indeed correct and relevant in our major. I could take the criticism, but I wasn't sure if he could because he was a foreign student also dealing with a language barrier. I think it's sometimes hard to give relevant feedback if you're not familiar with the field of someone you're giving feedback to. I really hate to hurt people's feelings unless it's just absolutely necessary for the good of the company or other employees, but it does have to be done. I just try to find the nicest and most constructive way to do it if at all possible.
The second article I read was "Why so Many Managers Avoid Giving Praise". This one intrigued me and I know for sure I have been accused of not giving praise myself in my last job. I was always of the belief that if you weren't getting yelled at or told what you did wrong, then everything was okay. It's how I was raised & how I've always been handled at jobs. I had a fellow employee come to me at my last job & say how she was raised on "atta girls" and how one went a long way with her. She said that her team would appreciate it if I would tell them if we got praise from a customer on an order. I told her sorry, I was never treated that way in my life & didn't really believe in it myself. Here's the other problem. I'm the one dealing with the customers. I only hear from a customer if something is wrong with their order. If they keep ordering (and paying!) and you don't hear any problems with it, then I assume things are going okay. I really didn't feel like I could pass along praise when I really wasn't hearing anything from the customers. I just figured it was a "we do our jobs, we get paid & get to keep our jobs" sort of situation. The article really cemented in my mind why I handled things the way I did with the production team, but it also let me see that I could handle it better. But it still doesn't explain what to do when you're not getting praise to pass along.
I think for me, feedback is a tricky thing. I hate giving feedback, especially bad. Even with good feedback, I worry that people will think it's fake, or even worse say "well what does she know?!" I just had to turn in feedback in another course yesterday for a project group. One of the girls was a different major than the other 2 of us in the group. The lecture material was more geared to her major that week so she blasted the other student and I for including something in our project that the material said was irrelevant in this day & age. The problem was, for our major, it's still completely relevant. So in my feedback of the other student with my major I really tried to encourage him that what he had included was indeed correct and relevant in our major. I could take the criticism, but I wasn't sure if he could because he was a foreign student also dealing with a language barrier. I think it's sometimes hard to give relevant feedback if you're not familiar with the field of someone you're giving feedback to. I really hate to hurt people's feelings unless it's just absolutely necessary for the good of the company or other employees, but it does have to be done. I just try to find the nicest and most constructive way to do it if at all possible.
(Creative Cat from Feedback Cats because again...cats & cuteness)
Comments
Post a Comment