Writing Constructive Feedback

We’ve all been there - someone asks for feedback and suddenly your mind goes blank. You scramble to come up with something helpful, but you don't know where to start or what topics are safe to cover. Providing constructive feedback is difficult, so we usually end up complementing them in some way and then find something minor that qualifies as constructive criticism to round things out.

This is why nearly every company struggles with feedback. It’s not that people don’t want to give feedback, it’s that they don’t know how to do it well. Constructive feedback is a skill that can be learned, and it’s one of the most valuable skills you can develop as a leader.

Open Ended Feedback

Unfortunately, when we ask for open-ended feedback we place a surprisingly difficult cognitive burden on the person responding. They’re required to sift through memories, consider various interactions and identify examples of times when they believe you could have done better - examples they are comfortable sharing with you, by the way. Without some sort of structure to guide us, providing feedback is stressful exercise that yields little value.

However, if we think about feedback in the context of a specific question like “how well does he facilitate meetings?” or “how effectively do she represent her employees during calibration sessions?”, then opinions, observations and insights come much more naturally. We often think about those sorts of things anyway, in the moment. We know who runs great meetings and who runs horrible meetings. We know who crushes it at calibration meetings and who gets walked all over. Asking specific questions like this makes it much easier to provide meaningful, constructive feedback.

Still, we need to know what sorts of questions to ask.

Feedback Prompts

One helpful approach is to think about what we expect of people in a specific role and at a specific level of seniority. What sorts of things should a Senior Product Manager, a Principal Mobile Developer or an Associate Counsel be good at? At Clarity Forge we recommend articulating competencies for just this sort of thing. One of the benefits of the competencies framework is that expectations are made explicit, so there are no surprises.

However, if you have not articulated competencies for your company yet, a list of common professional expectations can help get you started. To facilitate this, we have outlined some examples of categories and sub-categories that can help guide you toward providing fair, targeted and constructive feedback.

Prompt Examples

• Interpersonal Skills
  
  
  • Communication
  • Clarity of messaging: Do they express their ideas in a way that’s easy to understand?
  • Listening skills: Do they show that they’re actively listening during discussions?
  
  
  • Empathy and Support
  • Understanding perspectives: Do they show empathy and make others feel heard?


• Leadership and Management
  
  
  • Team Motivation
  • Inspring the team: Do they effectively energize their team during challenging projects?
  • Setting clear expectations: Are they clear about what is expected of their team members?
  
  
  • Delegation and Trust
  • Balancing oversight and autonomy: Do they empower their team without micromanaging?


• Collaboration and Teamwork
  
  
  • Participation
  • Supporting the team: Are they perceived as someone who contributes constructively to team success?
  
  
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Handling Disagreements: Are they effective at mediating conflicts and fostering a collaborative environment?


• Professional Expertise and Skills
  
  
  • Technical Proficiency
  • Staying updated: Are they applying the latest industry knowledge effectively in their work?
  
  
  • Problem Solving
  • Creative Solutions: Do they handle challenges with innovative thinking?
  
  
• Facilitation and Meetings
  
  
  • Meeting Value
  • Mining for conflict: Do they drill in to uncover disagreements and effectively use meetings to drive alignment?
  
  
  • Meeting Efficiency
  • Managing time: Do they ensure meetings are productive and stay on schedule?
  
  
  • Engagement and Inclusion
  • Encouraging participation: Do they create space for everyone to contribute?
  
  
• Professional Image
  
  
  • Reputation Among Peers
  • Trust: Are they viewed as someone reliable and approachable?
  
  
  • Reputation Among Direct Reports
  • Leadership respect: Are they respected by those who report to them?
  
  
• Strategic and Long Term Thinking
  
  
  • Vision Setting
  • Articulating goals: Are they clear when communicating long term strategies?
  
  
  • Adaptability
  • Adjusting to change: Do they adapt strategies when faced with new information or challenges?
  
  

These are just a few examples of categories that can guide your feedback. There are no doubt others that may make more sense for specific roles, but the key is to provide feedback that is actionable and relevant to the person receiving it.

By moving from open-ended feedback to targeted prompts, you’re not only making the feedback process easier but also more valuable. Structured prompts encourage the reviewer to think critically about specific aspects of performance and provide clearer, more insightful responses. This benefits everyone involved: the reviewer feels confident they are giving meaningful input and the person receiving the feedback gains precise areas to focus on for development and growth.

The next time you ask for feedback or write a performance review, consider framing your questions with these categories in mind. Whether you’re giving or receiving feedback, specificity fosters a feedback culture that is constructive, fair and actionable.

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Our mission is to empower organizations by fostering cultures of clarity and transparency, engagement and collaboration. Through innovative tools, best practices and partnership with leaders, we strive to unlock the competitive advantages inherent in healthy organizations.