What is Developmental Feedback?

Developmental feedback in the workplace delves deeper than a standard performance evaluation. It prioritizes future implications over current circumstances. While it offers feedback on performance, developmental feedback focuses more on skill development for career advancement.

Leaders must be able to offer developmental feedback to ensure team members’ success and the company’s future. Let’s explore this topic in more detail below.

How Do You Deliver Developmental Feedback?

How leaders offer developmental feedback is crucial to whether team members find value in it. When delivered well, this feedback is encouraging and gives team members a clear direction for improvement. If delivered poorly, it could appear as a more intensive—and negative—performance evaluation.

To ensure your leaders deliver developmental feedback properly, teach them to follow these guidelines.

Focus on the Big Picture

Giving developmental feedback is not an occasion for nitpicking minor behaviors. It is about looking at the big picture and guiding team members to that vision.

A great way to do this is to focus on each team member’s patterns of growth and development. Leaders can foster positive patterns while working with team members to correct negative ones.

For example, a leader can note that a team member listens to feedback and tries to implement it. However, they occasionally become argumentative in brainstorming sessions. The leader can then encourage the team member to keep listening to feedback and train them to improve their communication skills.

Provide Factual Feedback

Leaders must be careful to provide based on facts, not subjective interpretations. They should comment on things they have seen or managers have reported.

When they speak, it must be based on fact. For example, they could say, “Sometimes you don’t appear to collaborate in meetings,” instead of, “We need to build your confidence.”

Be Available for Follow-Up Meetings

Team members may not take in everything a leader says in one meeting. High-quality leaders are available for follow-up meetings to support team members and help them grow their skills.

Offer Feedback Consistently

Developmental feedback does not have to be restricted to specific meetings. Instead, it should be a regular part of interacting with team members. When leaders see signs of improvement, they should tell the team member. Positive feedback lets team members understand they are working in the right direction.

Balance Motivational and Constructive Feedback

Leaders must be able to convey both the positive and negative aspects of a team member’s performance in a candid yet caring manner. If they only focus on the positive, team members will not grow, and focusing only on the negative will discourage them.

Provide Specifics and Examples

Discussing developmental improvements can easily become a conversation with unfamiliar buzzwords for team members. Leaders should use examples.

A leader could say, “Nice job contributing today during our meeting. Even though we didn’t use your idea, I could see you were trying to offer a solution.”

When they are told specific instances of their actions, team members better understand where they stand in their development process.

What Are Examples of Developmental Improvement Feedback?

You want your leaders to be specific in their feedback, so we will provide concrete examples of developmental feedback.

A leader is having a developmental feedback meeting with a new team member who lacks experience but is eager to learn. A great leader asks them what skills they want to work on to help prioritize their needs.

The team member would like to improve their conversation skills. The leader then discusses how they can work together to accomplish this. They also tell the contributor to contact them if they encounter any specific incidents where they struggle with communication. The leader can use these opportunities to teach the team member to communicate by example.

When that is completed, the leader discusses a couple of other important developmental areas so the team member knows where they stand.

The leader ends the meeting by pointing out how the contributor is already showing growth, using specific examples. They comment on how impressed they were that the team member volunteered for a project they were not familiar with to help the rest of the team.

What Is the Difference Between Evaluative and Developmental Feedback?

The difference between evaluative and developmental feedback is perspective. Developmental feedback focuses on future growth, while evaluative feedback concentrates on the present. Due to its emphasis on current performance, evaluative feedback is given more often than developmental feedback.

Evaluative feedback is used as criteria for raises, bonuses, promotions, or termination. Developmental feedback offers a safer space where the focus is on growth, not performance.

Evaluative feedback also tends to be more formulaic. A scoring or scaling system is involved, and leaders check boxes for good or poor performance. Development feedback is more free-flowing and customized based on each team member’s needs.

Provide Better Developmental Feedback Now

Developmental feedback is crucial for any business to sustain itself and grow. However, it can be difficult to give without proper training. CMOE can provide developmental feedback training to all your leaders.

CMOE has over 45 years of experience training and developing leaders across all industries. We will ensure your leaders know to offer developmental feedback that will excite team members to grow in their careers. Contact us with any questions about our services.

Try our Feedback 360 training program today.