How should we Give Feedback

These are two types of feedback: Redirection and Reinforcement.

Redirection

Redirection identifies job-related behaviours and performance that do not contribute to individual, group, and organizational goals and help the employee develop alternative strategies.

Reinforcement

Reinforcement identifies job-related behaviours and performance that contributes to individual, group, and organization goals and encourages the employee to repeat and develop those actions. 

Redirection and reinforcement are really two halves of the same whole—they  work together to provide all members of the organization with the information they need to improve their job performance and work up to their full potential.

When feedback takes the form of redirection and reinforcement, it has a number of useful characteristics:

• Focuses on acts, not attitude
• Directed to the future
• Is goal oriented
• Is multidirectional
• Supports proper action
• Is continual 

Rather than commenting on an employee's lack of professionalism, for example, we redirect job performance issues like typing errors and behavioural problems that affect job performance, like lateness. Reluctance to give or receive feedback is usually based on misperceptions about feedback. 

As givers, we are reluctant to hurt the feelings of others and as receivers we don't want our work to be criticized. When we think about those times in which we have been subjected to hurtful criticism, we often find that what hurt us wasn't the fact that someone was commenting on our work, but the way those comments were offered. Somehow, feedback about our typing errors turned into an evaluation of our entire educational history and personality!