How to make sure your feedback is a gift

Many of us, when asked to give feedback, dive straight in, boots and all, highlighting all the areas that need improving.

In my early days as a manager, I liked to review all presentations before the client meeting. I often looked at these the night before, focussed on what I thought needed fixing, doing it myself as there was no time to discuss it back in the office. Not terribly helpful or empowering to the people on my team. To any of you reading this, I sincerely apologise. I’ve gotten much better and thought I’d share what I’ve learnt.

Unless you are trained in receiving critical feedback (yes, that’s a thing), hearing negative feedback can be quite crushing. We all have egos after all.

What’s interesting, is most people know where they are not so good and don’t always need to be told. What they need to be told is what they could do instead.

So, with that in mind, let’s talk about how to give feedback after a presentation. I’ve attached a feedback sheet that’s helpful to use when rehearsing. It covers both delivery and content.

Start by asking the person what they liked about their presentation - there’s a good chance they’ll start telling you all the things they hated. Stop them. Ask again “What did you like?”. They might say “I liked starting the presentation with a story, I felt the audience connected with me”

You could follow that with, “Yes, it really led brilliantly into the topic and your passion was evident.”

Next, ask them “Where would you like to improve?” they’ll probably tell you many of the things you’ve already noted eg “I speak too fast, I need to slow down”

You can then move into a conversation about how to do that. “Your story could have been even better if you’d used more pauses and perhaps slowed down the pace at the very end. Want to try that again?”

You might have something to add, do your best to frame it as what they can try. For example, if the slides are overcrowded and hard to read, say “It would be easier for the audience to pay attention to what you are saying if you reduce the amount of words on the slides. It’s hard to read and listen at the same time.”

If they were pacing about or fidgeting, rather than say “I found your pacing distracting” try instead “It’s important to have a nice balanced stance when you’re presenting, use movement when you want to highlight something on the screen, or move towards someone you are talking to in the audience” and get them to give it a try.

If you found parts of the presentation unclear or a bit complicated - ask the presenter “what were you wanting to communicate?” Whenever I’ve done this, I usually get a simple response, that’s easy to understand - tell them “just say that, that’s really clear”

In summary:

1. Normalise feedback by giving it regularly

2. Start by looking for what’s right and be specific, highlighting the positive impact.

3. With areas that need development advise what to do instead

4. And always model the behaviours you’d like your team to emulate

---