Become An Expert in Giving Difficult Feedback

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Navneetha Lokanathan
Leadership & Communciation Trainer & Assertiveness Coach
Automatic Summary

Become an Expert in Giving Constructive Feedback

Do you find it challenging to provide feedback, especially when it calls for improvements or behavioral changes in others? The apprehension is understandable and quite common. However, a successful business or working environment thrives on feedback. It's a crucial tool for personal and professional growth, fostering collaboration, and nurturing high potential talent within the workplace.

Tackling the Feedback Dilemma

Traditionally, providing feedback feels transactional and often disregards the sentiments involved during the process. To rectify this gap and eliminate common feedback mistakes, a more effective approach is the Nonviolent Communication (NBC) method. Introduced by Dr. Marshall Rosenberg, nonviolent communication includes empathy, feelings, and needs, ensuring that the recipient doesn't feel attacked, guilty, or fearful.

NBC focuses more on us rather than the recipient. It turns feedback into a process of sharing feelings and emotions. Constructive feedback expressed through this method is easier for the recipient to absorb without feeling defensive.

The Four Steps of Nonviolent Communication

Key components of the NBC method of providing feedback include Observation, Identification of Feelings, Identification of Needs, and Request.

  1. Observe: Detail the accurate, factual observations impacting you, without injecting personal evaluations or opinions.
  2. Identify Your Feelings: Clearly outline your feelings associated with the situation. Your feelings shed light on your likes, dislikes, and emotional state.
  3. Identify Your Needs: Needs and feelings are related; unmet needs often underlie negative feelings. Articulate your needs clearly during the feedback.
  4. Request: Specify your request positively, stating concrete actions the recipient can take. The clearer the request, the better the understanding and likelihood of change.

Converting Feedback into Nonviolent Communication

Constructive feedback transforming through the NBC lens looks like this:

Initial Feedback: "Don't spread company documents on the conference room floor."

NBC Feedback: "I am irritated when you leave company documents on the conference room floor because I want our documents to be safely stored and accessible. Could you place the company documents in the locker after meetings?"

The latter statement does not place blame, rather it explains the speaker's feelings, underlying needs, and cordially requests a specific action. The feedback genuine and less likely to instigate defensiveness.

Conclusion

Nonviolent communication is an effective solution to the difficulties faced while giving feedback. It encourages an environment of mutual understanding and empathy. The key challenges of this method lie in staying in touch with our own feelings and clearly knowing our needs. Once we can work on these, we can deliver better feedback, promoting growth and productivity in the workplace without damaging relationships.


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