Some Tips on Writing Performance Feedback
Having read a decent amount of 360º feedback across multiple performance review cycles in various workplaces, I’ve seen a large number of useful and helpful comments. These can be praise or criticism - the ingredient that makes them helpful is that they have enough substance to follow up on, work with, ponder, and discuss. Even if they don’t give away who wrote them.
Some givers of feedback sign their comments. While that happens out of the best intentions and is a sign of trust, it is important to bear in mind that it can actually reduce the anonymity of everybody else. By exclusion, more precise guesses about the identity of the authors of anonymous comments can be made. This is especially important to keep in mind if the number of feedback givers is small.
I’ve also come across a pattern that I find unhelpful. It’s when someone’s feedback is not directed at the receiver, but at one of the receiver’s coworkers. Such comments can, for instance, praise receiver R for their patience with an inept colleague C. These comments effectively say more about C than about R. Honestly, such feedback should be directed to C directly. It has no place in R’s feedback. It’s badmouthing C behind their back.
We should be better than that.
Tags: work