Giving Feedback When Your Team Is Virtual
When you and your team are all working from home, how do you give feedback effectively to a remote colleague? Many of the ways in which people typically experience and receive feedback in the office —directly and indirectly; formally and informally; and through interactions and non-verbal cues—no longer apply. And yet, feedback is more important than ever. It not only fuels individual and collective performance but it helps keep remote employees engaged at a time when motivation and momentum can be hard to maintain.
Before we start, if virtual teamwork has impacted your priorities and expectations, it is essential that you share with your team what success now looks like to you. Be explicit about your expectations by sharing them clearly and upfront. And, given the many ways in which your colleagues’ lives are being disrupted, check in with them to confirm that your expectations are realistic and achievable.
Let’s look at how we can give feedback effectively notwithstanding the challenges we are all facing. In this article, I focus on how to address developmental feedback although many of the same ideas relate to positive feedback.
1. Before You Start
Always assume you lack context. Performance is situational, especially during this crisis, so remember that each team member has a unique context and personal circumstances will help you to structure an effective feedback conversation. Recognizing that your colleague may be experiencing stress and anxiety at home—now their workplace—is crucial to every feedback conversation. Be alert not just to what they are doing for you but also to how they are feeling.
Recommendation: Ask yourself: What do you know about your colleague’s context and circumstances and what they are dealing with? How might this affect their ability to meet your expectations?
2. Plan the When and the How
Think about when and how you will give someone feedback. Any feedback conversation needs to be had privately, and somewhere where you both feel comfortable in your respective spaces. In the virtual environment, you have only three options: 1. Email. 2. Phone. 3. Video call.
Email: Email allows you to create a precise message and to deliver it on your timetable. It may also be convenient in the context of teams separated by time zones. You may think your job is done once you hit send. However, in practice, it can seldom do the whole job when it comes to giving effective feedback. First, it does not allow you an opportunity to understand your colleague’s context or perspective. Second, it does not provide your colleague with an easy opportunity to clarify what you are saying or ask questions. Lastly, it does not give the two of you the ability to agree on next steps.
Phone: A feedback conversation by phone is, by definition, more personal and gives you and your colleague the opportunity to discuss the feedback. It also enables you to clarify, if needed, and to expand on the feedback. A key advantage of a phone call over a video call is that it enables you more easily to refer to and use notes. This may be useful where you have key talking points you do not want to skip over.
Video: A video call personalizes the experience by emulating a real-time face-to-face conversation and gives you greater opportunity to create rapport and see and take account of non-verbal cues.
Recommendation: Use a video call whenever you can. Take a few minutes to set up your video before the call so you are well lit and your background is neutral and not distracting to your colleague. Make sure your shoulders are framed squarely within the picture and avoid adjusting the camera during the call. Maintain eye contact to make the conversation as “normal” as practicable.
3. No one likes surprises
Giving your colleague an explicit heads up that you would like to give them feedback is key. It gives them clarity as to the purpose of the call which enables them to prepare mentally so the two of you can have a productive dialogue.
Recommendation: When explaining the purpose of your call, also explain what the purpose of the feedback is. By doing this, you set your expectation for the call and its outcome. It may sound like this: “I wanted to share some feedback with you on your draft memo so that you have a clear and effective structure that you can use the next time we work on this type of project.”
4. Set the Right Tone
As much as you can, set a tone of energy and optimism. The goal is to set up a dialogue, not a debate, and to communicate your message without making the other person defensive. Avoid the temptation to be "right" regardless of what they have to say. If you anticipate a difficult conversation, keep your tone neutral.
5. Make Structure Your Friend
A feedback model that is easy to remember is the COIN model. COIN stands for Context, Observations, Impact, and Next Steps.
Additional Tips:
When Sharing Observations: If this issue has come up previously, be explicit about that. Focus not only on the current impact but also the future impact if they do not address the feedback.
Recommendation: If you anticipate a difficult conversation, make sure you have gathered all the necessary information and rehearsed what you want to say.
When Explaining Impact: Avoid giving feedback when your emotions are heightened. That said, sharing how your colleague’s behavior made you feel can be helpful. It makes the impact real (whatever their intention) and it can help prevent them from becoming defensive and keeps open the possibility of dialogue. It may sound like this: “When you didn’t send me the draft memo by the time we’d agreed, I was frustrated because I’d planned my schedule around reviewing it then. It threw off my evening and leaves me thinking that you don’t value my time.”
Stay Task-Focused: Effective feedback is not critical, nor evaluative nor about general performance. Focus on your colleague’s specific actions rather than on who you think they are as a person. Avoid generalizing or labeling. If you are tempted to say “always” or “never,” don’t. If you are tempted to make a personal comment, don’t. It is ineffective to say “you need to improve your writing.” The key is to provide a solution.
Recommendation: Ask yourself: What actionable next steps can your colleague take that are specific to the task you asked them to complete? Focus on any strengths that your colleague can leverage in a balanced way.
Be Open to Feedback Yourself - Ask Questions: Since you are also operating in a challenging and unfamiliar environment, your own performance may have some kinks right now. Inviting feedback or advice is always good practice but with all of us now WFH, you may discover that your colleagues can give your ideas on how you can be more efficient or effective.
Recommendation: Ask your colleagues: “Do you have any questions or advice for me?
When Agreeing Next Steps: Remember that people need time to change and that not all feedback can be implemented right away. You may need to give your colleague additional feedback on how to move forward.
Recommendation: Finish the feedback conversation with “How can I help you?” Consider offering to mentor them or to have a follow-up conversation to support them in putting your feedback into practice.
A version of this article was published by NALP (The National Association for Law Placement)
in its NALPNow! newsletter on April 28, 2020.
