Coaching practices for How to Give Feedback

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

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

• I deliver my feedback as a finished verdict and then the other person just sits there closed off
• I tell someone what went wrong but never say what I actually want instead, so they walk away knowing they messed up with no idea what "right" looks like
• My feedback conversations end with the person nodding and saying "yeah, makes sense, got it"
• The instant someone gives me hard feedback I’m already explaining and defending myself
• When I just hand someone my assessment they go passive and defensive, like I’m doing something to them

Practices that may help

1. 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
2. The Feedback Sandwich: Why It Doesn’t Work and What to Do Instead
   The feedback sandwich (positive–negative–positive) is the dominant model for giving feedback in workplaces, but research and practitioner experience suggest it routinely fails: recipients either remember only the positive parts or dismiss the negative as softened insincerity. The practices below cover why it fails mechanistically and what specific alternatives are better supported.
3. Add a forward-looking request to SBI
   Pair the impact statement with a specific, doable request for next time.
   The SBI Feedback Model, Made Practical
4. Close feedback by checking understanding, not agreement
   Ask "What did you take from that?" rather than "Do you agree?"
   The Feedback Sandwich: Why It Doesn’t Work and What to Do Instead
5. The SBI Feedback Model, Made Practical
   The SBI model (Situation–Behavior–Impact), developed by the Center for Creative Leadership, structures feedback by anchoring it to an observable moment, describing the behavior seen rather than inferring motive, and naming the actual impact. This reduces defensiveness and attribution errors; the model is established clinical practice in leadership development, though direct RCT comparisons to other feedback approaches are limited.
6. Receive feedback with minimal defensiveness
   Treat feedback as data about others’ experience — not as a verdict on your character.
   The Johari Window
7. 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
8. Make feedback flow in both directions
   Give timely, specific feedback — and ask for it on your own management.
   Effective One-on-Ones, Made Practical
9. 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
10. 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

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