Technique To Give Effective Feedback

Giving feedback is an important task for many executives and managers. Poor feedback causes subordinates to be unclear of the improvements they need to do, creates misunderstanding and can lead to poor job performance.

Good feedback needs to be done in a clear and well-structured manner. Using the acronym OILS, below are the steps that we can use to give well-structured feedback to our team members.

Observation. After stating the purpose of the meeting, we can start by giving our observation of the overall performance of our team members. Be specific and accurate as possible. For example, we can say, "Last week, I noticed that you were 1 hour late for work on Monday, Thursday and Friday" rather than just saying "Last week you were late for work".

Impact. The next step is to inform our team members of the impact or consequence of the observed behaviour. In the example above, we can continue by saying, "When you were late, I had to ask Mary to cover for you and this is not fair to her as she has her own job to do".

Listen. Next is to give the opportunity for our team members to explain the reasons behind the incident or scenario. At this stage, we listen actively for their explanation. If needed, we can ask open-ended questions to better understand the situation.

Suggestion. The last step is to offer suggestion on how to solve the situation or problem. To create a sense of ownership, we can first ask our team members for their suggestion to improve the situation and if needed, we offer our own suggestion.