The Entrepreneurial MD's July newsletter article is on how NOT to do that - blast others away with our feedback!!

Giving honest and useful feedback is both rewarding and challenging. It demands considerable emotional intelligence and interpersonal skill. And it helps build genuine and trust-filled relationships in which expectations are clear and everyone works from the same page.

Most of us cringe at the thought of confronting others, and even worse, not being likeable or liked anymore once we have delivered the goods. So we tend to avoid it or, when forced into providing feedback, we offer up commentary that is either as tepid as weak tea or as harsh as caustic soda.

Here then is a summary of the top ten tips for providing effective feedback:

1. Make it timely  
2. Make it consistent  
3. Make it specific
4. Make it descriptive, not evaluative
5. Avoid emotional “digs”  
6. Direct it at the behaviors or results, not at the person.  
7. Show empathy  
8. Be candid without being brutal. 
9. Be appropriate  
10. Make it meaningful

Once again, you can read the full article here.

Anyone want to practice giving ME feedback? :-)