How to Give Constructive Feedback to Your Team: A Guide for New Leaders
The most challenging leadership task made easy
Most new leaders get promoted because they are good at their current job, not because they have leadership skills. Though technically excellent, many new leaders struggle with managing a team.
I’ve seen this play out dozens of times as a Learning & Development specialist over thirty years. Job applicants with leadership skills are hard to come by, leading organizations to grow their leaders. A solution for the organization but problematic for an inexperienced team leader.
As a new leader, you must know how to lead a team overnight, usually without training. There is a lot to learn, and it takes time to function effectively as an experienced leader. It can be pretty overwhelming.
“Never give feedback in front of other people or in a performance review. Any criticism or feedback given in public will go around the workplace like wildfire and won’t be a good look for you.”
If you have no formal leadership training and no chance of getting any, it’s essential to educate yourself. I’ve seen plenty of people struggle in their new roles at first, only to become excellent leaders later. Leadership skills are straightforward to learn but it takes intentional practice.
One crucial leadership skill is giving feedback. According to Ronald E. Riggio Ph.D. writing in Psychology Today, it’s one of the most challenging leadership skills to learn.
“Learning how to give useful feedback to others is a skill that takes time to develop.” — Ronald E. Riggio Ph.D, Psychology Today.
What is feedback
Feedback is telling someone how they have done and can be positive or constructive. New leaders struggle with constructive feedback. It’s easy to give praise and encouragement, but talking to someone about their lateness or shoddy work is more problematic.
For example, Harry has made several mistakes in his work over the last month. As his team leader, it’s your job to ensure his work returns to its former accuracy. You can do this by giving Harry constructive feedback.
Why you need to give feedback
If you leave undesirable behavior unchallenged, it will always get worse. Other team members will start to resent that you haven’t dealt with the problem.
Your manager will expect you to sort out any issues within the team promptly. Asking for help and guidance is OK. Ignoring the the situation and hoping it goes away isn’t.
When and where to give feedback
If you have weekly or fortnightly one-to-ones and the matter isn’t urgent, you can use those meetings.
Never give feedback in front of other people or in a performance review. Any criticism or feedback given in public will go around the workplace like wildfire and won’t be a good look for you. Performance reviews aren’t the place to hear new information, especially feedback. Again, this will not go down well with your team or manager.
If you don’t have one-to-one meetings with your team, or the matter is urgent, find somewhere private. A meeting room, coffee shop, or zoom meeting will do.
Always give feedback face to face. Emails or other non-personal messages are hard to interpret correctly.
How to give feedback
A coaching approach to giving feedback is far better than the old-fashioned ‘feedback sandwich’.
Coaching requires your team members to contribute ideas and encourages them to develop solutions themselves.
It follows these steps:
Say what you have noticed — “I’ve noticed that the sales reports for the last three weeks have been sent back to us with mistakes.”
Ask for input — “Can you talk me through what happened.”
State what needs to happen — “The reports must be correct before they are passed to other departments.”
Explain why — “The sales reports are used to generate organizational dashboards that go to our clients. If they are not correct, we may have to pay a penalty fee.”
Ask how your team member can do something different to meet the needs of the role — “What can you do to make sure the reports are correct in future?”
Ask if any further resources are needed — “What do you need to make this happen?”
Discuss possible solutions — “Perhaps, Joaquin could cover your other work on a Friday so you can fully concentrate. You could work from one of the meetings rooms as it is quieter.”
Agree on a course of action — “Let’s try these solutions for the next couple of weeks.”
Arrange a follow-up conversation — “We’ll meet again in a couple of weeks to see if our solutions are working.”
What happens afterward
Bear in mind that making sure the agreed actions happen is up to you. For example, if your team member doesn’t have access to room bookings, you will need to get it for them. It will be you who talks to Joaquin about the work cover.
“If you have no formal leadership training and no chance of getting any, it’s essential to educate yourself.”
Most people want to do a good job and succeed at what they do, and people tend to wait for a manager to tell them what to do.
The curveball
When giving constructive feedback, you may find out that your team member is ill, being bullied, getting divorced, or having other personal issues.
Voila! There is the reason for their poor performance.
In this case, you will switch tactics to ensure they get the support they need.
Final thoughts
Giving constructive feedback is unpleasant and challenging for everyone, not just new managers. Once you have mastered giving feedback, you have one of the main components of people management covered.
Learning to give feedback will ensure your team are:
- Fully trained
- Motivated
- Equipped to do their jobs to the required standard
The process:
- Say what you have noticed
- Ask what happened
- State what needs to happen
- Explain why
- Ask what they can do differently
- Ask what resources they need
- Discuss solutions
- Agree on a course of action
- Arrange to follow up
If you found this article useful, download your free Constructive Feedback Guide and feedback form here.
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