Name the actual impact on you or the team

Say what effect the behavior had — on you, on others, on the work.

Why it works

The impact statement converts abstract criticism into a causal story the receiver can evaluate: "when X happened, Y resulted." It also shifts the emotional register from judgment ("this was wrong") to consequence ("this affected me / the team in a concrete way"), which activates empathy rather than defensiveness and gives the receiver a reason to care that isn’t just rule-compliance.

How to do it

1. After naming the behavior, add: "The impact on me / the team was…"
2. Be specific about outcome — missed deadline, a colleague felt excluded, a client noticed.
3. Use "I" statements for personal impact to avoid making it sound like a verdict.

Evidence

Empathy-based communication research shows that people are more motivated to change behavior when they understand its concrete effect on others rather than hearing abstract evaluation. This is consistent with both perspective-taking and prosocial motivation research. (mechanistic)

Impact-statement framing is established clinical communication practice; direct experimental isolation of this element within SBI is not available.

Common mistake

Fabricating or inflating the impact to make the feedback land harder, which the receiver usually detects — and which destroys the credibility of the whole conversation.