How To Give Negative Feedback

As a manager, one of your main roles is to share feedback with your team about their work performance. This feedback can be both positive and negative.

Giving negative feedback, especially if you’ve never done it before, can seem quite intimidating. You might be worried about upsetting someone, damaging your own reputation, or that your employee will dislike you. It’s completely normal to have these worries. However, they shouldn’t prevent you from giving negative feedback when it’s needed.

It’s important to understand that the main purpose of feedback is to foster growth and improvement. If the feedback you’re giving doesn’t help someone get better, then you should rethink why you’re giving it.

In this post, we’ll walk you through a three-step process to help you give negative feedback with confidence.

Step 1: Make sure feedback is specific, timely and relevant

A common mistake that many managers make when giving feedback is being too vague.

When giving negative feedback, make sure that you communicate the problem, why it is a problem, and the impact that it’s having.

One of the best times to provide feedback is during your regular catch-ups with your team members. These should ideally be happening every week or every other week. There’s no need to arrange a separate meeting and you definitely shouldn’t wait until their performance review. Providing feedback during your 1:1s ensures that it’s relevant and timely. Plus, it helps to foster a culture where feedback is welcomed, making it easier for you to provide feedback in the future.

Too often when giving negative feedback, managers start with their view of the person’s performance, leading their employees to either disagree and defend themselves, or to say they agree without truly accepting the feedback.

A better approach is to ask your team member to share how they think things are going first.

Starting the conversation with “How are things going with…?” can encourage your employee to open up about their experiences. You’ll have your own thoughts about what needs to change, but what do they think?

This approach can give you valuable insights that might change your feedback. For example, perhaps the person has taken on too many tasks and isn’t focusing enough on the project you’re most concerned about. Instead of assuming they’re struggling with the task, you can discuss their workload and how they can manage it more effectively.

When you’re ready to start your feedback, using the phrase “I noticed that …” followed by “… and the impact is” can be an effective way to give specific and meaningful feedback to your employee.

This approach presents your feedback as an observation, something you’ve seen and are open to discuss. Linking your observation to its outcome helps the person understand the effects of what they’ve done, whether they meant it or not.

For example, you might say: “I’ve noticed that when you submit your work late, the impact is that the entire team’s progress is held up and we risk not delivering our project on time.”

A big part of giving feedback is handling how the other person reacts. We all naturally defend ourselves, especially when someone criticises us. Let the person express their feelings, and once they’ve had a chance to think about the feedback, carry on the conversation.

Step 2: Discus improvement strategies

Once you’ve successfully shared your feedback, the next step is to discuss how your employee can improve.

Feedback shouldn’t be about finding fault or criticising; it’s about creating an environment where the person is more likely to listen, understand, and act on what they’ve heard.

Instead of jumping in with suggestions of what you think they should do next, try asking them what they think they could do to improve things, and offer your support and feedback on their suggestions.

A good way to get their ideas is to ask them something like, “What things could you do differently?” or “How do you think you could achieve that?”

They might share that they need extra resources or training. Perhaps they’re overwhelmed with work and need your help prioritising their tasks.

As a leader, it’s your job to find out why the problem is happening and support your employee with resolving it.

Step 3: Create a follow-up plan

After the conversation, create a follow-up plan outlining the steps the employee should take to address the feedback, and provide a timeline for completion.

It’s really important that your team member knows exactly what you expect from them, and that they feel it’s a fair ask. Keep a close eye on how they’re getting on, especially at first, and be ready to give them more support if they’re struggling.

Once you’ve both agreed on a plan, it’s a good idea for you to go over what you’ve agreed and to thank them for how they’ve handled the conversation. A simple thank you goes a long way towards easing some of the tension that surrounds feedback conversations.

Try saying something like: “Just to go over what we’ve talked about today, we both agreed that you need help in managing all of your tasks and to help with that, we’ve agreed that we’ll have another team member support you with Project X. Thanks for discussing this, I think it will have a big impact on us hitting the next deadline.”

Finally, when you start to see improvement, make sure to acknowledge it.

Everyone likes to know when they’re doing well, especially after receiving negative feedback. This will boost their morale and show them that as their manager, you’re always there to help and support them.