How to give effective feedback in English?
Many executives hold regular check-ins with their employees and view these meetings as an immutable part of their schedule. These meetings can serve various purposes: to review administrative topics, discuss ongoing issues that need to be resolved, assess a potential need for management intervention, or simply to have informal discussions about work in general. More importantly, these moments also provide an ideal opportunity to let an employee know how much you appreciate their good work and why!As a manager, providing appropriate feedback to your team is a key element of its success.
"Feedback is one of the best ways for a person to improve while also enhancing their immediate environment."
Nowadays, it is quite common to place great importance on employee improvement and development. It is now rare to find someone in the business world without an official PM (performance management), PIP (performance improvement plan), or any other acronym used by the company to measure an individual's results. Often, these documents are built around the gaps between the employee's current situation and their ideal performance level.
This is a positive practice that every organization should adopt. The pursuit of continuous self-improvement is fundamental to our evolution as human beings and for any structure. As Mme du Deffand wrote: "Let us strive to improve ourselves, for we cannot remain stationary; either we progress or we regress."
Feedback is one of the best ways for a person to improve while also enhancing their immediate environment. It can also motivate people to aim for greater things and to continue, unconsciously, to adopt behaviors that lead to positive outcomes. To achieve this, it is essential to provide employees with positive feedback while highlighting areas for improvement.
According to some research, it has been shown that "positive feedback is more effective than negative feedback in motivating the pursuit of a goal, as it increases expectations regarding the outcome of the goal as well as the sense of personal efficacy of the person pursuing it." In short, the boost in confidence that people gain from words of encouragement makes them feel that their goal is much more attainable. Therefore, they double their efforts to achieve it.
Furthermore, according to other sources, criticism can lead to a feeling of lack of recognition, which negatively affects morale and productivity. In contrast, it is suggested that positive evaluations foster engagement and improve performance.
Do all cultures have the same perception of positive feedback?
It should be noted that, in some cultures, frequently addressing words of encouragement to employees is not necessarily a common practice. In Germany, for example, compliments are only given in very exceptional cases. The viewpoint is that a correct level of performance is simply part of a person's job.
Similarly, in Japan, it is not customary to give positive feedback to subordinates. Kopp suggests that this is related to the ongoing pursuit of perfection in Japan and the fact that one does not compliment something that is not perfect. It may also be related to the idea that compliments can inflate the ego of the person receiving them and thus lead to a relaxation of efforts at work. Or perhaps it is related to the fear of homegoroshi, the practice of giving excessive and double-edged compliments that are meant to sound sarcastic.
On the other hand, if you are a manager in countries like the United States or Canada, positive feedback is strongly encouraged and certainly appreciated. Nevertheless, in Western countries, the notion of insincerity in compliments also exists. This is why there are different theories on how to structure feedback so that it is well received and has a significant impact on the organization, rather than disappearing into the black hole of good job and fantastic work without real utility.
The STAR model is one of those structures. It helps the person giving feedback to formulate a comment that is objectively "good" and credible. This fits particularly well with the nature of the exercise, because, in English, when you tell someone they are a star, you are telling them they did something really well.
In summary, the STAR approach allows for feedback that describes a specific SITUATION or TASK, includes details of the ACTION taken, and describes the impact or RESULTS of that action.
Now that we know how to structure our positive feedback, you are probably wondering what words or phrases in English you can use to build effective feedback.
We have compiled a list of English expressions that you can use to let your employees know how well they are doing. We will also use these expressions in a few example sentences, while keeping in mind the essential formula to make any feedback relevant: STAR!
English expressions for giving positive feedback
I was quite impressed with your presentation at our monthly sales meeting. It was very concise and you used the slides to pass your message effectively. Everyone in the room really appreciated that.
It was amazing how you were able to get a yes from the customer within 20 minutes. That account will bring in a substantial chunk of revenue for us this quarter.
I am very pleased with how you are supporting the junior staff members. I know how much time you spent helping them learn the operating system; they’re catching on very quickly thanks to you. Please keep doing what you’re doing.
I appreciate that you were an active participant in this morning’s meeting. You had some great insights about the project that I think will help us to avoid any further delays. Thank you.
In my opinion, your reporting is top notch / stellar / outstanding. I just received the summary from the recent trade show in Hamburg and I felt like I was there myself. I especially liked how you included a short description of all of the key companies that visited the stand. That significantly helped to validate our target market.
I wanted to let you know that your observation on the market trends was extremely valuable for the organization. Thanks to your analysis, management finally made a decision regarding the merger.
You’re really mastering the SAP system. I don’t know many people who are able to access information as quickly as you do. For example, when we needed the details of that order urgently on Monday, you were able to get it to us within a matter of minutes. That really avoided a major issue with the customer. Would you be willing to become an official power user? I know you would be highly appreciated by the entire team.
It was great how you handled that angry customer. Not only did you manage to calm him down within just a few minutes, but he extended his membership by another year! We’re really lucky to have you on the team.
I’d like to commend you for the effort you’ve put into the Jackson account. It’s really been paying off. I heard that the key buyer has signed a purchase contract to double their volume next year. Congratulations!
I’m really thankful for the way you stepped in as team leader while I was away. Everyone knew what their roles were and I came back to a smooth-running organization. All of the invoices were paid on time, you successfully reorganized the schedule when Chris called in sick, and you made the right decision in reimbursing that customer regarding his complaint. I’m confident that the next time I leave, the office will be in very capable hands.
John, do you have a moment? It’s important that I tell you just how pleased I am with your performance this month. Thanks to the additional 100 units that you’ve sold, our team will be above the quarterly budget by 5%! Outstanding work. As a token of appreciation, I’ve added a bonus to June’s salary.
