✨Continued improvement✨ is better than pursuing perfection— a place no man, woman, or child has ever reached.

Feedback is integral to that growth.

When done right, feedback empowers everyone in the team to take a step in the right direction.

What this means is that effective communication is a critical element in running high-performance teams and ensuring everyone is pulling their weight 🏋🏿‍♂️.

As we continue to expand our team at New Comma, we're realising just how essential giving effective feedback is.

It is not a thing to underplay AT ALL.

You know that every time we learn something new, we have to bring you into that new knowledge so that as a community, we can all flourish 💐.

So don’t get left behind, find out the importance of giving constructive feedback and how to go about it right here, right now…

1. Emphasise Facts Not Feelings 🧾

It’s easy for people to take constructive criticism personally 🥺.

The easiest way to avoid that kind of situation is to be clear on vocalising the issue at hand.

It also helps to outline exactly how the problem impacts the desired progress 🚙.

The focus here is on the task at hand, so everything mentioned should revolve around said task.

Remember, keep your eyes on the prize! 🎖

1. Be Direct and Specific 👉🏿👉🏿👉🏿

Don’t let loads of flowery 🌷words get in the way of someone receiving your message.

Keep things direct and specific.

Feedback should always be given with a rationale.

You love it, why? ❤️

You hate it, why? ❌

Top Tips —

When outlining a point about the work, ensure it is constructive and specific by leading with one of the following sentence starters:

• What I enjoyed about this was… this is because

• This particular detail stood out to me..

• This particular thing added to this piece because…

• Something I didn’t enjoy as much was…

• This particular detail l found harder to grasp, perhaps you can make sense of it for me…

• I don’t feel as if … added as much to the work because…

1. Empathy Is Key 👨🏽‍❤️‍👨🏿👨🏽‍❤️‍👨🏿👨🏽‍❤️‍👨🏿

It is your responsibility to be emotionally intelligent as a provider of feedback, to ensure mutual understanding and communication between you and the receiver ☺️.

Also, to ensure that as you provide feedback that the person receiving it is responding well and if they are not, it is down to you to assess how better to reach them 🤝🤝🤝.

It could be as simple as a tweak in your word choice or tone 🗣.

Keep in mind that anyone’s work can be a soft spot for them, so do tread lightly 👣.

1. Focus On Performance Not Personality 🎭

Providing honest and constructive feedback never needs to be personal.

Ensure that you have your focus on the team member's behaviours and actions instead of their personality traits (unless of course that's the issue in question).

1. Ensure It's A Two-way Conversation 🎙🎙🎙

Providing great feedback doesn’t mean simply talking at a person 🗣 and only having all your thoughts and opinions heard.

It’s expected to be a two-way conversation 👩🏿👨🏾‍🦱.

That way you have your feedback heard, and there is also the option for them to offer clarification or a better understanding.

It's always great to have an open mind and grant your team member the chance to tell their side of the story 📚so that everyone feels heard and there is the opportunity to move forwards on some common ground.

1. Recommend A Solution 🧑🏾‍🔧🧑🏾‍🔧🧑🏾‍🔧

Giving constructive criticism is all well and good, but it also sets more work for the person receiving the feedback.

Often a lot of feedback can make the person feel like they have to completely start again, or they've hit a brick wall 🧱.

In which case, it's okay to give them a few starting points 👉🏿 to solve the problem at hand.

This doesn't mean you have to spoon-feed them, either.

Advice and pointers beyond criticism is just as fundamental to providing feedback as the actual feedback itself.

1. Avoid the sandwich method 🥪🥪🥪

Contrary to popular belief, sandwiching negative feedback between two bits of positive comments can create confusion 🫤🫤🫤.

Be as honest as you can with the feedback, and the positives + negatives will balance out ⚖️.

Essentially, you would be giving any advice and feedback in good spirits with their interests in mind, so there shouldn’t be a reason to rely on the sandwich method to protect anyone's feelings

🫶🏿🫶🏾🫶🏽.

Part of being a creative is coming to understand that the workplace or simply work relationships are a place for constant upleveling 🆙🆙🆙.

You are constantly trying to out-do your last best trick and bring fire 🔥 to your creations.

Part of the way this is done is through fruitful feedback ✅ provided by those you work with.

The same can be said for those providing feedback; with practice and with time, you will find that your commentary will have the impact of adding a TON to a work-partners’ efforts.

On both sides of this coin, there is the opportunity for much joy and 😊 excitement.

The importance of feedback is unmatched and so making improvements in providing effective feedback is a wonderful place to start 👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿.

For more hard-hitting tips and posts tailored specifically for our creative geniuses be sure to head over to the New Comma page on Instagram @new.comma 🫶🏿🫶🏾🫶🏽

If you’ve come this far but have yet to sign up to New Comma what are you doing?🤯

Get into it and sign up over on the New Comma site to become the latest newcomer at New Comma

(See what we did there!😉😉😉)