For the last two weeks, we’ve been compiling data on this question, and on people’s general attitudes toward feedback, both positive and corrective. So far we’ve collected it from 899 individuals, 49% from the U.S. and the remainder from abroad. Before we tell you what we found, we suggest you take the same assessement here so you can put our findings within your own personal context.
9 comments:
This makes complete sense to me. While negative feedback can be hard to listen to, I know that it improves my work in a much more immediate way than positive feedback. If there's something I'm doing wrong, I want to know about it. Positive feedback is wonderful to hear and can be very valuable in terms of motivation, but I feel like it does less to directly improve your work, especially in an educational setting. It also depends on who is giving the feedback. If it is delivered in a respectful and constructive way, it will usually be well received, but if the person giving it can't deliver the message without it sounding like they're insulting the worker, it won't be constructive and it won't be good feedback. It also makes sense that people wouldn't like giving negative feedback. I know that for me it's difficult telling someone they're doing something wrong, because it makes me feel bad and it's much easier to focus on praise.
I often find that it is difficult to give corrective or constructive feedback at this age to my peers or even people who are a few years older than me because often times there is the notion of it being rude or arrogant since we're all the same age. I do like receiving constructive feedback from my peers because it allows me to gauge how I think I'm doing with how others really perceive I'm doing. I think the quantity and tact with which you give feedback is very important; you have to remember to keep a balance.
I completely agree with this article. Don't get me wrong, I like getting positive feedback (PF) and I think it is just as important as negative feedback (NF), but the negative feedback is what gives you the information you need to improve. Personally I like getting both at the same time, i.e. "great job but here are some things you could have done better or improved on." This makes me feel good about the job that I did but also tells how I could do it better. I think all of us are looking for ways to be better at what we do and as long as NF is in the form of constructive criticism, people respond well to it and improve.
I think that, more than positive or negative, when I'm doing a job I want honest feedback. While I think these studies are useful in determining what people need, I disagree fundamentally with the notion that "Constructive" feedback is negative. No one can do a job perfectly, but presumably we all try our (mostly) best, so why are we making criticism such a bad or "negative" thing? I feel like the danger of studies like these is that the take home message for managers etc. will be "these are the ratios of positive/negative feedback we should be giving" instead of "How can we reinvent the giving and receiving of feedback so that value judgments aren't as easily applied?"
This is an interesting finding about employees. This also speaks well for the overall employee'd desire to improve at their job. I think too often managers are hesitant to give corrective feedback because it will not be liked but employees actually appreciate it. This is definitely true in my own life also. I want to get better so i like hearing how i can improve. I think there is a fine line here though, because it has to be constructive feedback given in a positive light. If i get purely negative correction, I am more resistant to change. I also think its interesting that older folks want to hear this type of feedback more. I would have thought the opposite would be true.
I agree with Lindsay on this. I do not think that for something to be constructive or helpful it has to be negative. Honest feedback is what really matter and if you honestly think that a certain thing done differently or think maybe researching a certain topic would inform a piece better than please by all means tell me. We are only humans in the end and we are bound to slip up. i for one would like to know sooner rather than later.
Typically I feel that negative feedback and constructive criticism are the most valueble and useful types of feedback, but not the most important.
Negative feedback offers practical advice for improvement, but positive feedback is important to make employees feel valuable in the workplace.
This article is completely right. This may make me sound old, but the younger generation definitely has trouble with feedback and always expects everything to be great and that they are good at everything. This is definitely the wrong attitude to foster since it is feedback, especially constructive feedback that really help people grow, both personally and professionally. As for where I fall, I am definitely in the camp of people who have trouble both giving and receiving feedback, mostly negative. I do think I do an ok job of giving positive feedback. However, I do feel like I have been getting better at both giving and receiving feedback through my role as an RA. The hardest part is giving an equal amount of both kinds of feedback and making sure you don't come off as rude.
I actually ended up taking the assessment that this article offers. Although a lot of the questions were repetitive, this quiz itself was fairly well made and intuitive. After taking the test, I was sent a PDF with my results. The PDF was really interesting because it had a nice title thing with my name and date on it, as well as some info regarding the test, and then my results. Clearly, this test could be used to assess an entire workplace and each individual could get a specialized PDF with their results. I think that in modern work environments, it is even more important to assess employees and give them training in giving corrective feedback. My results definitely showed my preference of not giving my peers corrective feedback. My results also showed how my levels of confidence change in certain situations, which I was aware of. If I were managing a large group of people for a long time, I'd consider offering them this quiz in order to determine how they best receive feedback.
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