Summary

While kids give honest feedback effortlessly, adults often struggle with it due to fear and assumptions. To give effective feedback, be mindful of your intentions, address specific behaviors, and remember you're sharing information, not judging.

Kids know about giving feedback: Remember when your 5 year old told you, your new haircut made you look like a pineapple?

Kids don’t hold back when it comes to feedback. They will tell you straight out to your face what’s wrong or what they don’t like.

As you grow older it becomes increasingly difficult. Feedback is associated with bad feelings or concerns of hurting the other person.

Even the word makes many people cringe.

And feedback is often approached with a lot of assumptions.

Your thoughts, your fears – all can make for a bad experience.

So what can you do?

Before you giving feedback, take a breath, understand and set your intention.

Your thoughts and fears? See them as temporary distractions.

Use a model, such as SBIS – which can clearly guide you.

And remember you’re conveying information, not a judgment.