4 types of feedback you should be giving (and asking for)

A client and I were a few weeks into our coaching relationship when I assigned some homework: ask your boss for feedback. 

Always an A student, this client followed my instructions. In our next session, I asked what he’d learned; his answer brought a pause to the conversation. 

“Nothing,” he said. “My boss says I’m a rockstar — doing great.”

You’re so great, your boss has no feedback for you? 

This is a good problem to have. 

But it’s still a problem. 

Ken Blanchard popularized the idea that “feedback is the breakfast of champions.”

The line borrows an advertising slogan from Wheaties, a breakfast cereal that put famous athletes like Chris Evert, Mary Lou Retton and Michael Jordan on their boxes. 

The implication is that Wheaties and feedback are the sources of energy you need to win the day. 

I believe this, in the sense that feedback turns your attention you toward your next growth opportunity. When feedback isn’t clear and present, you may not know how you need to grow and develop. Staying stagnant is bad for careers and relationships. 

So, what’s a rockstar to do? 

The answer? Ask for next-level feedback. 

4 types of feedback

#1: Correction feedback:

Most of the time, when we think about feedback, we are thinking about correction feedback. The purpose of correction feedback is to address a concern. 

Anna is always late > We want Anna to arrive on time. 

Bill’s presentation had typos > Bill needs to proofread. 

Charlie yelled at his little sister > Charlie needs to apologize. 

The situation may be more complicated than those examples, but the purpose of the feedback is the same: you’re addressing a specific incident and suggesting a change is needed. (The Find It, Flip It, Elevate It process might help you do this well.)

But there are (at least) three other types of feedback you should ask for and offer. 

#2: Strengths feedback

Feedback is to help someone grow and improve for the future. That means sometimes the best feedback you can offer is to help someone recognize their strengths. Offering strengths feedback involves noticing and name someone’s strengths or capabilities.

Because our strengths often come naturally to us, we don’t always realize how important they are. Or that others may not have the same strengths and capabilities. Offering strengths feedback can help someone identify the unique contributions they make in a team. This kind of feedback also helps people feel seen, heard and appreciated. 

Strengths feedback should be specific. It might sound like:

• “You’re really good at helping us maintain focus and bringing us back to what matters. In that meeting, when we got off track, you noticed and got us unstuck.”
• “Thank you for creating a spreadsheet to track our progress. I appreciate that you are paying attention to the details.”
• “I know that conversation with the board was tense. I watched you handle it with patience, carefully explaining our thinking and answering their questions without seeming defensive. I admire your calm strength.”  

#3: Self-awareness & impact feedback:

Strengths feedback is often fun to offer. The third type of feedback can be less fun, but perhaps the most needed. Self-awareness and impact feedback help people become aware of their blind spots (the things others know about you, but of which you are not aware) and understand the impact of their behavior on others. 

Noticing and naming previously unidentified strengths is one form of self-awareness and impact feedback. But this feedback is most important when someone’s behaviors have a negative impact on others. 

A close colleague had to give me self-awareness feedback not long ago. We were facilitating a discussion for a senior executive team, and there was a lot to accomplish in our short session. I nudged the group from topic to topic, beginning to feel my blood pressure rise as we got further and further off schedule. 

What I missed, that my thoughtful colleague helped me see, was that we were off track because the executives were having an important conversation. Sure, we could move them along to the next item on the agenda — but we’d be cutting short the incredible dialogue that was already taking place. 

“If you keep rushing us, we’ll make it through the content but have a less meaningful experience,” he told me in an aside conversation. 

He was right. By helping me see the potential negative impact of my behavior, he grew my self-awareness. 

A director recently shared another situation where a team member needed self-awareness and impact feedback. Her rockstar colleague was experienced in his work, a high performer with an incredible network of industry relationships that were essential for the team’s work. But maintaining those relationships took an endless stream of meetings, phone calls, text messages and emails — all of which made the high performer hard to reach. His direct reports were floundering without the attention they needed to succeed. They needed this kind of feedback so he could understand the unintended consequences of the way he invested his time.  

#4: Next-level feedback

This leads us to our final form of feedback, perfect for the real rockstars: next-level feedback. 

Next-level feedback answers this question: “What do I need to work on to get to the next level?” 

My client, whose boss had zero feedback for him, took this question to his boss and returned with a spreadsheet of opportunities. The conversation and my client’s subsequent work to build his next level capacity earned him a promotion a few months later. 

Questions to help you find and ask for feedback

Giving and receiving feedback is essential for high-performing teams, and for trusting and growing relationships. Feedback really is the breakfast of champions. 

Help identify feedback you should offer using the questions below. Then, if you’re feeling bold, use the questions in the “ask for feedback” conversation to ask your boss or colleague for insights about your leadership. 

Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.

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