How well do you give difficult feedback?

Our reader poll today asks: How well do you give difficult feedback?

Extremely — I have no problems doing so: 10.57%
Moderately — sometimes it’s hard but I get it done: 60.86%
Somewhat — I don’t always do a great job with it: 19.77%
Not very — I frequently struggle doing so: 7.63%
Not at all — I’m terrible at giving difficult feedback: 1.17%

Tough Feedback is Tough. It’s never easy to give difficult feedback. People don’t like receiving it and we as leaders don’t enjoy sharing perceived “bad news.” Try changing your thinking on delivering feedback. It’s actually about delivering a tough message, which requires you to have a very specific mindset to deliver it well. Accept that burden and step up to it. If you’re more worried about being liked than you are improving performance, you’re doing a disservice to yourself, the organization, and your team member. Be tactful, fact-based, and direct. It will be over more quickly and everyone can then focus on improving performance.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 190,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.