<aside> <img src="/icons/info-alternate_yellow.svg" alt="/icons/info-alternate_yellow.svg" width="40px" /> This page is part of The Toolbox by Danny Smith.
</aside>
Giving and receiving feedback is a crucial part of building healthy, high-performing teams. Receiving feedback from others is also one of the best ways to learn about yourself and develop. A culture of giving and receiving constructive feedback helps build a culture of openness and trust, which is particularly important in distributed teams.
When we think about feedback in the workplace, we often focus on "negative", or "critical" feedback. However, giving and receiving "positive" feedback is just as important.
<aside> ➡️ Exercise: Think about the last time you received some positive feedback at work? How did it make you feel? When was the last time you gave someone similar feedback?
</aside>
In an office, we often provide micro-feedback to people by smiling, nodding or just listening attentively. In a remote environment we need to be a little more intentional with this – especially when we're working asynchronously. Here are some ways you can do this:
#shoutouts channel where you can call out other people for doing good work or helping you. Use it.Of course, not all feedback is as easy as a quick Slack message...
The first rule of giving feedback is to be nice about it.
Nonviolent Communication (NVC) provides a useful model for giving feedback to others and is applicable to all aspects of your life, not just remote work.
It's based on the idea that people resort to 'violent' modes of communication when they don’t know how to use effective strategies for meeting the needs of all parties. Violence in this case refers to communication that induces fear, guilt and shame in the other person, instead of working with them to find a beneficial solution that satisfies everyone.
This is the communication pattern at its core:
When ____ [observation], I feel ____ [emotion] because I’m needing some ____ [universal needs]. Would you be able to ____ [request]?”