Starter Question
 Think about a time someone gave you helpful feedback.
What made it helpful?
Feedback and Advice
Advice is recommendations about what might be thought, said or
done to manage a problem
Feedback is evaluative communication
 Evaluation literally means “to find value in”
Levels of Feedback




Task and procedural
Relational
Individual
Group
Types of Feedback
 Descriptive
 Evaluative Praise
 Prescriptive
Criticism
Feedback and Advice
Benefits of giving advice:
 Helps organization function more effectively
 Enhances employee identification with organization
 Enhances employee satisfaction & performancePraise
(if positive)
 Increases awareness of expectations
 Allows management to learn things
Criticism
Giving feedback and advice can result in negative consequences:
 Make stress worse
 Undermine autonomy
 Damage the relationship with the advice giver
Feedback and Advice
Advice for giving good advice and feedback:
 Determine if advice/feedback is really needed or wanted
 Make sure you have expertise in the area you are advising in
 Come across as confident and share your similar
experiences
 Advice/feedback should be appropriate for the relationship you
have with the recipient (e.g., the closer you are the better)
 Be respectful of the recipient’s autonomy and competence
 Be detailed and accurate
 Use whole messages
 Recommend concrete, feasible behaviors that are useful
 Define appropriate consequences for success and failure
Considerations When Giving Feedback
Where: In public or in private
When: Timeliness
– Close in time to when behavior happened
– No surprises or ambushing
What:
Behavior that can be changed
Who:
Alone or with others
How:
Partial vs Whole messages
Whole Messages
Direct, concrete messages that convey the truth with both
kindness and firmness
Whole messages combine:
+Observations +Thoughts +Feelings +Needs +Consequences
Partial messages leave one or more out
Partial message: “Why don’t you act a little nicer?”
Whole message: “You say very little (observation). It makes me
think that you don’t care (thought). I feel angry (feeling), but
what I really want is for you to talk to me (need). If you do, I will
spend more time with you (consequence)”
Advice for giving whole messages:
 Emphasize that you are being honest out of respect
 Put value on your relationship with the target
 Focus on things someone can change
Guidelines for Receiving Feedback
 Listen without interrupting
 Keep an open mind and avoid defensiveness
 Paraphrase to ensure fidelity before responding
 Be gracious and assume the person giving feedback has your
best interests in mind