The most meaningless feedbacks at work
Parent Post
Getting good feedback is
Getting good feedback is necessary to excel. But sometimes we receive unhelpful advice that doesn’t mean anything useful.
Bad feedback falls into two categories: empty praise and vague criticism.
Here are a few types of meaningless feedback.
You need to work
You need to work on your attitude.
Any type of feedback that is focused on the person’s personality, and not the work, is problematic.
When job performance feedback is tied to a person’s identity, it can be used to hold their career back.
Sometimes, the feedback can
Sometimes, the feedback can be right, but still be wrong because of how the message is delivered.
If you’re in a position to give feedback, know that not everyone likes to hear it the same way.
You have to be sensitive to where you do it. Sometimes, peers and managers publicly criticize a group when they really intend that message for one person.
Great job.Popular but vague
Great job.
Popular but vague words of encouragement like this aren’t tied to a specific outcome.
Although it sounds great, it does not reinforce any behaviors. To turn meaningless feedback into encouraging advice, the feedback must be very specific
I don’t like that.Vague
I don’t like that.
Vague feedback like this doesn’t give space to improve with whatever context that person is working in.
A better method is to be specific about what’s going wrong, or to have the humility to note that the feedback is just an opinion.