Feedback can be delivered in many ways. And we are living in a time, where feedback is sometimes given on a daily basis. When done effectively, it will develop and motivate your team. Your team can be one person or many. It can be a classroom of students, your children, employees within a business, or a global team in an organization, to name a few.
So, take the time to prepare what you are going to say. Anticipate questions that your team member may have and consider specific examples that support the feedback you are providing. Also, clarify what your intention is with the feedback you are providing. What do you hope to gain by making the team member aware of the observation you are offering? In the case of feedback that may feel “negative”, it is also wise to prepare for the team member to react defensively and plan how you will diffuse that.
Next, be willing to listen. Constructive feedback is a conversation, not a monologue, so allow the team member to respond and really listen for valuable of information that might offer you a broader picture of the situation. As a leader, hearing your team out in any circumstance is very powerful.
Lastly, before you end the discussion, establish next steps. This may include specific, active goals for the team member, but may also include ways that you can make changes to better support your team member as well. Remember, you are trying to make improvements, and you should all be working together to that end. To read more on feedback and specific questions that you could ask, please see my article that I wrote for Training Industry. https://trainingindustry.com/articles/performance-management/feedback-an-opportunity-for-growth/