Have you ever considered that there might be right and wrong ways to give feedback? Make sure that you’re giving the best, most useful feedback to your team possible. Here’s how.

1. Be Honest

Don’t give your team mindless encouragement. Give your team members the truth, but if there’s any negative feedback to give, frame it as developmental. Make sure any negative feedback is focused on a solution, not the problem itself, all while being honest.

2. Be Specific

Just saying “Oh, good job” is meaningless. If you want your words of praise to actually matter, specifically let your team know what about their performance you liked. Likewise, you can’t expect your employees to improve in needed areas unless you’re specific about the issue at hand and the results you’d like to see.

3. Be Valuable

If your developmental feedback isn’t valuable to your employee, how do you expect them to actually take it to heart? Frame your developmental feedback in such a way that it offers something to the employee (a roadmap to a raise or a promotion they want, etc.).

Perhaps there are other kinds of road blocks in your way and you are not sure what to do? Read here on ‘The Road Blocks Keeping You From Success’.

If you would like a free assessment of skills against the ENGAGE model, click here.