What’s the best way to provide not so great feedback without being too harsh?

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Frame it as a tool to help them improve and that you are making an investment in them. If you didn’t care about them… you might not bother with the constructive feedback.

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Feedback is a gift. You have outside perspective that they will NEVER have (none of us can objectively see ourselves the way other people do). You are helping them!

One last tip, is you let them know they are about to get feedback. Helps them mentally prepare. Even just saying “Hey do you have some time for me to give you some feedback?” Let’s them know it’s coming.

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Pick out a few specific examples ahead of time. Focus on the actions taken. Understand why they took them (as in ask), coach how it could’ve been different and why to do it a different way.

Now, if it’s something like a person didn’t do what they were supposed to do, I’d try to understand their process for how they do things and see if you can change that. For instance, maybe overwhelmed, maybe lazy.

Be interesting to hear what others say as well

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I use positive inquiry to essentially leverage their strengths to improve their weaknesses.

Ex. Someone who is good at analysis may not be good at communication - so I'd complement the analysis and talk through their process then we'd walk through their last presentation and see what strengths we can use in their application of analysis in their improvement of presenting the analysis.

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Kind
Direct
Respectful

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Also- give feedback that is based on observable behavior.

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Walk into the office with a megaphone and shout all the things they did wrong.
Make it very personal

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Sandwich. Positive negative positive. Also make it a coaching moment rather than a “you did this wrong”

Ugh. This is misleading and everyone sees through it. Be honest. And call it what it is - criticism. People respond better to honesty than BS. No one is perfect, everyone makes mistakes and if we don’t let people know, in direct and honest terms, what went wrong and how to improve, then we’re not doing our jobs as managers. “Feedback” is a softball term for criticism and everyone knows it.

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I often times feel feedback is too sugar coated and not explicit. There have been times when I didn’t even know I was getting feedback since it was so wishy washy.

I think it’s important to summarize and be direct on what went wrong and what development actions are needed

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