Choking on the ‘feedback sandwich’

It’s astonishing how for many companies the annual appraisal is the only form of feedback employees get.

And it’s made worse by the ‘feedback sandwich’ technique, which slyly inserts a criticism between two slabs of praise, to make the criticism easier to swallow.

In my own experience, the first serving of praise feels false, the criticism makes me feel angry and defensive, and I don’t hear the second serving of praise because I’m stewing about the criticism.

There follows an aimless chat about the ‘support’ I need to get better at what I’m bad at, and we part with relief, with all forgotten for a year until the dismal exercise looms again.

It’s so bad! The feedback sandwich is a lazy, off-the-shelf technique that imposes a generic template for an idealised employee and, because nobody’s ideal, the boss must find fault, however irrelevant it is to the job at hand.

Employees feel engaged when they have regular, balanced feedback that is linked explicitly to their agreed accountability.

So, ditch the annual appraisal. In its place, work out what the person’s specific accountability is, and the two of you talk openly about it once a week, at least.

Feedback is essential to good delegation. I explore techniques in my new book.