How to Give (Negative) Feedback Effectively

I think the problem with the approach you describe is that while it's filled with a bunch of good tips, there isn't a general process to follow. For example, 1. State the facts - "I've noticed that we're not getting enough resumes" 2. Check for agreement - "Do you agree?" 3. Describe how it affects you - "I feel like we're not spending enough time on outbound activities" 4. Offer suggestions - "Have you thought about LinkedIn?" This can avoid the *shit* sandwich from above (bad comment - good comment - bad comment). Btw, this is the same advice given married couples in marriage counseling :)

great article, love the fact that you do a resume at the end of the article.

As long as (negative) feedback or criticism is given in a kind and courteous manner with intent to help not hurt, I think it should be done. An individual who cannot take criticism is not prepared to get to the next level. Just my personal thought on the matter...

Thanks for that list of advices.

I find myself often delivering a negative feedback in the wrong way. People have feelings, and the form of the message is half the work to get your point through.

In some cases, even if they know that you are right, they will not act on it because they were hurt, and it takes a lot of practice and experience to manage to build constructive discussion around a negative feedback.

On the other side, I wish people would throw bad feedback in my face when they mean it.

I think it is as important to know how to receive a negative feedback, as it is to give it. It's not you who are being criticized, it's the work. Put your ego aside and get back to work.

Generalize or Exaggerate

“Makes me throw up every time I look at it…” (unless of course, this is actually true!)

Give unnecessarily rude feedback

An utter piece of shit…”

Those two are actually better said than not said sometimes, so the advice is shit. Also if people you work with people that get insulted when you say something like this to them, you should really consider changing your workplace. People say bad things to each other - faster everyone will get over it, the better.

I totally agree with your constructive feedback tips, and I understand your time is limited - you have many such posts to write. I'm guessing you can't employ an expensive proof reader. Once I read the 2nd Don't tip I noticed the text "no question that you don’t", which might read better as "no question that _if_ you don’t". Otherwise this might cause overly detail oriented people to write silly comments. On the other hand there are many different examples and ways of writing them, and I'm not a professional copy writer

(This is part exercise: make the shortest message I could incorporating all the Do tips, part lame joke)

Loved the article. My personal pet peeve is people trying to educate me on what I should do on my startup that I've worked on for close to 2 years, without understanding (or trying to understand) anything about the market, the audience or the dynamics involved. Everybody's an expert now.

On the other hand, *good* negative feedback is amazing - I love hearing people's gut reactions, like what they don't understand or what is missing for them. That information is invaluable.