I really hope this isn’t news to anyone, but giving someone feedback on their work should be a positive experience. If you are upsetting people with your feedback, then you are doing it wrong.
I’m specifically thinking here about situations where someone has created a thing and has asked you to review it and give them some feedback (as opposed to a training scenario or a line management situation - although some of these tips will definitely apply).
When I first started out as an editor, I routinely upset colleagues and authors with my feedback - because I didn’t know how to do it well. Luckily for me, a senior editor decided to take me in hand.
Here’s 5 things she taught me.
1. Get a brief. And stick to it
Before you start, you should know:
the objective(s) for the project
contextual information that ensures you understand where you are in the process
the stages your colleague went through to get to this point (particularly where external stakeholders have been involved)
what your colleague is trying to achieve
what you should specifically focus on
what your colleague will do with your feedback
If you need more information to understand how your colleague reached this stage, ask for it. But it’s absolutely critical to be clear on what you've been asked to focus on.
So that’s your brief. Don’t be tempted to expand the scope by yourself - the world is littered by failed projects that were derailed by people with opinions on things they weren't asked about.
Trust your colleague. Trust the brief. And stick to it.
2. Appreciate the person and the work they’ve done
This is probably the single most important thing my mentor taught me. Seeing the human behind the work has transformed my approach to feedback.
Before you do anything - before you read the thing or look at the thing - consider your colleague and just think about what it took for them to get to this stage. This might have included things like:
clarifying the problem or task
talking to (potentially tricky) experts to understand the area
seeking other feedback and input
spending time and energy developing a solution
throwing it out and starting over
iterating and iterating again
It’s important to recognise that you are rarely starting from first principles - work has already happened. In your feedback session, start by telling your colleague what you liked and what impressed you about the thing you’ve been asked to review.
And thank them for letting you review it.
3. Be constructive
Sometimes people are scared to give feedback because they think the work needs improvement, and they don’t want to hurt their colleague’s feelings.
That’s nice, right? But with feedback, it’s really important to cover both pluses and minuses (if you have them, that is). Because the real value of feedback lies in helping someone see their work with fresh eyes. Potential ‘negatives’ can be opportunities to make it better.
This is why you need to learn how to give feedback constructively:
Always give feedback in person - either face-to-face or via video. Don’t use email - words and tone of voice can easily be misinterpreted.
Be humble - explain that this is your opinion; don’t present opinion as fact.
Don’t sweat the small stuff. If there are small errors - typos, say, or house style inconsistencies - don’t go into the detail. Just alert them to the fact that there are some small things that need to be looked at. If it's an option for you, use track changes to highlight the changes (and think about suggesting the correction so they can just accept it and move on). Don’t spend precious time going over things that can be easily fixed.
If you think the work needs to be iterated, take time to explain your thinking and the challenge(s) you may have experienced. For example, maybe you had to reread something because you didn’t understand it the first time. Or you got lost because you felt a key piece of information was missing. Whatever it is, offer it up as something to think about. But leave it to your colleague to decide what, if anything, they want to do about it. Trust them to decide on their next steps.
Offer continuing support. But don’t mandate it.
4. Resist the urge to do the work
This one is really important. And it can be hard to stick to this, because you’re usually asked to review something because of your relevant experience. But please don’t redo the work. It generally leads to bottlenecks and disempowered colleagues.
For example, I know that people just love rewriting content.
When I was the editor of 2 newsletters for the Canadian government, I had to pilot each edition through 5 levels of approval. And each increasingly senior approver rewrote the newsletters. Not because the newsletters were badly written, but because this was probably more fun than whatever else the approvers had on their to do list. So the newsletters all sounded like they'd been written by the last person in the process. That didn’t make them better.
I didn’t learn anything in that job - apart from the fact that I wanted a different job. But the memory of how much time - and goodwill! - was wasted in this process has really stayed with me.
It’s easy to be subjective about work - particularly where you have a lot of experience - and think that how you do it is best. Maybe that’s true. But you probably learned by doing. Isn’t it better to give someone else a chance to get to that stage?
If you find yourself wanting to redo someone else’s work - be strong! And resist.
5. Perfect is the opposite of done
This is probably the second most important thing my mentor taught me - namely: don’t make change suggestions just because you can.
If something meets the objectives, then your feedback could simply be: ‘I love what you’ve done here, I have a few small changes but I think it’s great.’
One of the challenges we have is that there generally isn’t just one way to solve a problem. How I approach it will probably be different to how you approach it; the words I choose may be different to yours. And that’s okay. You just need to learn to recognise when change really is needed. And when it is not.
A friend of mine who was writing her PhD dissertation had this note above her desk: ‘Perfect is the opposite of done.’ It was a great reminder to her that perfect was impossible. And she had to be able to draw a line under her work in order to meet the deadline.
So recognise when something is good enough. And stop.
Get in touch
I hope you found this helpful. Being asked to give feedback once is a privilege. But it’s even better to be asked to give it again by colleagues who value your input and the way you give it.
As always with my blogs, these are my opinions, drawn from a lifetime working as a content specialist - first as a print editor and then a digital content designer, strategist and lead. I’ve found this approach helpful - but appreciate that we all have different experiences.
If there’s anything that you want me to address in a future blog, if you have any questions or if you would like to be added to my mailing list for future blogs, please leave a message here or contact me at jane@roxboro-design.co.uk.
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