Module 5

Giving feedback: specific, timely, kind and useful

Most people in legal workplaces get less feedback than they need, and most supervisors give less than they think. It is easy to see why. Feedback takes time. Positive feedback can feel unnecessary (‘they know they did well’). Critical feedback can feel unkind, risks conflict and may be taken badly. So it is deferred to the annual review, or delivered in a rush, or in a form so vague (‘good job’, ‘needs work’) that nobody can use it. Yet feedback is the main way in which people learn from experience, and the most useful thing a supervisor gives. Done well, it is specific, timely and about what the person did and what followed from it. It is given in a way that leaves them able to act, and invites their view. It is as much about what to keep doing as what to change. This module explains what makes feedback useful and offers a simple structure for it, covers praise and correction, timing and setting, writing versus speaking and cultural differences, and shows how to make feedback a daily habit. The Feedback Check in the labs reads a written message for the common faults. Harder conversations are covered in Module 6 and in Delivering Bad News and Difficult Conversations. All the people are invented.

General education on supervising legal work and giving feedback, using invented people, firms and matters. It is not legal or employment advice, and it does not state the professional or employment rules of any country. Those differ and change: check the rules that apply to you and take advice.