Coaching practices for Giving Feedback to Direct Reports

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Giving Feedback to Direct Reports, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• Feedback in my one-on-ones only ever flows one way
• I deliver my feedback as a finished verdict and then the other person just sits there closed off
• I tend to bite my tongue in the moment and save things up for the formal review, and then I dump weeks of accumulated issues on someone all at once
• When I just hand someone my assessment they go passive and defensive, like I’m doing something to them
• Every time I raise an issue with someone they get defensive and we end up arguing about whether they’re a good person instead of fixing the actual problem

Practices that may help

1. Make feedback flow in both directions
   Give timely, specific feedback — and ask for it on your own management.
   Effective One-on-Ones, Made Practical
2. Invite a response after delivering SBI
   Close SBI by asking what the other person makes of it — not with a verdict.
   The SBI Feedback Model, Made Practical
3. Give feedback in the moment, not stockpiled for reviews
   Feedback accumulated for a periodic review arrives late and in bulk — neither helps.
   The Feedback Sandwich: Why It Doesn’t Work and What to Do Instead
4. Ask what the person already knows before offering your assessment
   Ask the person to evaluate their own performance before giving yours.
   The Feedback Sandwich: Why It Doesn’t Work and What to Do Instead
5. Make feedback specific and behavioral, not evaluative
   Describe what you observed, not what it says about the person.
   The Feedback Sandwich: Why It Doesn’t Work and What to Do Instead
6. Describe behavior, not character
   Say what the person did — actions, words — not what that says about who they are.
   The SBI Feedback Model, Made Practical
7. Use SBI for positive feedback, not just correction
   Name the situation, behavior, and impact when someone does something right.
   The SBI Feedback Model, Made Practical
8. Establish shared purpose before delivering critique
   Frame critique as help toward a shared goal, not an evaluation from above.
   The Feedback Sandwich: Why It Doesn’t Work and What to Do Instead
9. Ask for feedback before you give it
   Earn the right to challenge by inviting challenge yourself, first.
   Radical Candor, Made Practical
10. Name the actual impact on you or the team
    Say what effect the behavior had — on you, on others, on the work.
    The SBI Feedback Model, Made Practical

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