Article

5 Tips on How To Provide Constructive Feedback

March 26, 2025

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Emily May

According to Exploding Topics, 83% of employees value feedback of any kind. Impactful feedback is one of the greatest gifts a leader can give their team (or vice versa). Professionals who consistently receive helpful feedback are constantly improving their skills. However, feedback needs to be constructive to foster growth. 

This article provides five recommendations on how to provide constructive feedback to encourage team growth, trust, and performance. 

What Is Constructive Feedback?

Constructive feedback involves providing insights to a colleague to help improve their performance. For feedback to be truly constructive, it must be supportive, specific, and solution-focused.

The benefits of constructive feedback include improved:

  • Performance
  • Personal growth
  • Engagement
  • Collaboration

On the other hand, non-constructive feedback doesn’t provide the necessary context to improve performance. “This won’t work” or “Do it differently” are examples of non-constructive feedback. These comments are unproductive, demotivating, and frustrating.

5 Tips on How To Provide Constructive Feedback

Illustration of two people sitting across from each other having a thoughtful conversation, with speech bubbles indicating active dialogue and exchange of ideas.

This section outlines five tips on how to give constructive feedback. Refer to the examples of constructive feedback under each tip to help you implement these principles.

1. Be Specific & Clear

Constructive feedback needs to be specific. Start by sharing the overarching message of how your coworker can improve and the potential impacts of these improvements. Then, provide clear examples that support your recommendation. This strategy ensures that the feedback is easy to understand and implement. 

Conversely, feedback that is too general leaves the recipient with more questions than answers. Without actionable insights, your coworker likely won’t know how to improve the task, which can lead to distrust over time. 

Specific & Clear: “Your client presentations could be more effective by adding data points at the beginning and end. Clients need to see the numbers to be convinced. I can send you a presentation I did last month that included current and estimated stats in the first and last slides.”

Not Specific & Clear: “Make your client presentations more compelling.”

2. Be Timely

Provide timely feedback. Prompt opportunities for improvement will help your team members fix their work while it is fresh in their minds. A good rule of thumb is to provide feedback as soon as possible so that those receiving it can immediately apply it.

Delaying feedback could force your coworkers to spend more time revising, especially if it affects the entire project. Provide feedback quickly to encourage productivity and trust.

Timely: You provide feedback about a team member’s presentation no later than the next day.

Not Timely: You provide feedback about a team member’s previous presentation a month later, right before their second presentation.

3. Be Objective

Objectivity is crucial to ensuring effective feedback delivery. Don’t provide feedback on personal attributes. Instead, focus on helping coworkers improve their workplace behaviors, skills, and processes. In other words, focus on the problem or desired outcome, not the person. 

Additionally, the tone and verbiage of your feedback should also remain objective. Leverage your emotional intelligence skills to ensure your input doesn’t sound accusatory or personal.

Objective: “I just noticed in the email I was CC’d on that there were a few spelling mistakes. I understand these things happen occasionally, but I recommend reading your emails one final time before sending them. You can also check grammar with an AI tool to make your emails as clear as possible.”

Not Objective: “Your emails are unprofessional.”

4. Be Collaborative

Illustration of a person presenting data on a chart to a seated colleague, symbolizing collaboration, analysis, and shared decision-making.

Foster a two-way conversation when providing feedback. While sharing your insights and recommendations, allow the recipient to share their perspectives or seek advice. A collaborative conversation promotes team engagement and deeper understanding.

Additionally, consider asking for suggestions on how to improve your feedback delivery. Mutual feedback exchange helps both parties identify opportunities for improvement. 

Collaborative: “I noticed some recurring inconsistencies in the monthly reports. Can we schedule a time to go over these together so I can point you in the right direction and answer any questions you might have?”

Not Collaborative: “I noticed recurring inconsistencies in the monthly reports. The numbers in column B are incorrect. Please research how to do this calculation properly.”

5. Be Solution-Oriented

Focus on offering solution-oriented feedback. Be specific and clear about what needs to be changed, then suggest the next steps in the process. How should your colleague approach making the improvements? What are your suggestions? What has been your experience?

Secondly, remaining friendly and supportive is another key component of remaining solution-oriented. When feedback is given in a positive tone, the recipient is more likely to feel optimistic, engaged, and motivated to address the problem.

Solution-Oriented: “The team may have been confused during your demonstration. I have a suggestion: how about using visuals next time? This way, they can see the document you are referring to.”

Not Solution-Oriented: “The team was confused during your demonstration.”

Conclusion

Illustration of two colleagues giving a high five beneath a checkmark symbol, representing successful collaboration and positive feedback.

With consistent practice, providing constructive feedback can become a natural part of your leadership style. For the best results, aim to be specific, timely, objective, collaborative, and solution-oriented. Constructive feedback will help build trust, improve performance, and strengthen relationships within your team. 

Speed up your ability to deliver and solicit constructive feedback with our new micro-credential course: Impactful Feedback. With only 2–4 hours of learning, you’ll be ready to lead impactful feedback conversations that support team development.

Your journey to confident leadership starts here.

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TAGGED AS:
Foundations, Agile Fundamentals, Agile Team Coaching, Agile Coaching, Agility in Leadership, Leading with Agility, People Development, Coaching

About the author

Emily May | ICAgile, Marketing Specialist
Emily May is a Marketing Specialist at ICAgile, where she helps educate learners on their agile journey through content. With an eclectic background in communications supporting small business marketing efforts, she hopes to inspire readers to initiate more empathy, productivity, and creativity in the workplace for improved internal and external outcomes.

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