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Feedback is a way of helping another person to consider changing his/her behaviour. It is communication to a person (or a group) which gives that person information about how she/he affects others. Feedback helps the individual to keep their performance on target in order to achieve certain standards and goals. It is a developmental process for the individual who wants to learn how well his/her performance matches expectations.

As a trainer you have the responsibility of assisting your trainees in their learning and one important way of assisting them is by giving them constructive feedback. This can be on:

What you see of their performance on the training event
What you observe about their behaviour with others
What they say about themselves and their performance in the workplace

Giving positive feedback is a key skill for any trainer or manager. It is not just giving criticism but an aid to learning and self-development. Without feedback how can anyone grow and change?

Giving feedback is an area covered in depth on our Train the Trainer training course.

Some criteria for useful feedback

1. It should be descriptive rather than evaluative and so reduces the need for the individual to react defensively.

2. It should be specific rather than general. To be told that one is dominating will probably not be as useful as to be told, Just now, when we were deciding the issue, you did not listen to what others said and I felt forced to accept your arguments or face attack from you.

3. It should be directed towards behaviour, which the receiver can do something about. Frustration is only increased when a person is reminded of some shortcoming over which she/he has no control.

4. It should be well timed. In general, feedback is most useful when given at the earliest opportunity depending, of course, on the person’s readiness to hear it and the support available from others.

5. Understanding should be checked to ensure clear communication. One way of doing this is to ask the receiver to try and rephrase the feedback he/she has received to see if it corresponds to what the sender had in mind.

How to give positive feedback

Give your feedback in a straight and adult way- don’t be patronising and overly critical

Be supportive and positive

Start with something the person has done well (there will always be something!) and ask them to analyse how they achieved it -  this way learning takes place through success and not failure

Say specifically what you have observed and what they can improve for next time

Be prepared to accept they may not agree with you feedback is two-way!

REMEMBER! Feedback is vital in the learning process

Similar resources you may like

1. Train the Trainer
2. Focus on your Delegates
3. Training skills
4. Leaders and feedback
5. Feedback from Managers

Tags

Development process, feedback, Positive feedback, train the trainer, Train the Trainer Course, Train the Trainer Training

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This entry was posted by Heather Buckley on Wednesday, April 4th, 2007 at 12:14 pm and is filed under Train the Trainer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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