Clean Formula for Strengths-Based Feedback

Most of us don’t enjoy giving feedback to people. Here's a simple and clean feedback formula that makes use of your strengths.

Most of us don’t enjoy giving feedback to people. That’s because there are three challenges to overcome. First, you may not have developed basic feedback skills. Second, you see the world a certain way. Third, the other person sees the world their way. That’s three big challenges that can create a mess. But you can overcome these challenges through a simple and clean feedback formula that makes use of your strengths.

All you must remember is S.O.A.P. (I told you it was clean.)

• S is for Strengths, where you consider the dynamics between your strengths and the other person’s strengths

• O is for Observed, where you converse about the observed behavior

• A is for Aftermath, where you converse about the impact of the behavior

• P is for Preferred, where you converse about what you’d like to see happen instead

Let’s break this down.

Strengths

Before you give feedback, consider your strengths and their strengths, and adjust your approach. As we wrote in our blog post, Four Types of People You'll Meet, there are different approaches to life:

• Executing, where we focus on work, tasks, and processes

• Thinking, where we focus on thinking, ideas, and planning

• Influencing, where we focus on impact, influence, and opinions

• Relating, where we focus on people, feelings, and connections

These are general approaches to life, but even within these approaches, there are specific kinds of strengths like being responsible, analyzing factors, establishing deep connections, and communicating well.

As you give feedback, you will want to ask questions like:

• How do my strengths affect the feedback I want to give?

• How do their strengths affect the feedback they will receive?

• What dynamics may be present between us?

• How do these dynamics affect my approach?

By considering the strengths of me and them, you can utilize the best parts of yourselves for a positive feedback experience.

Observed

After considering strengths, it’s time to give the feedback. You start by sharing what you observed and leave time for listening and conversation, for example:

Aftermath

After sharing the observed behavior, you share the impact of the behavior, for example:

Preferred

After sharing the aftermath of the behavior, you share what you’d prefer to see instead. It’s easy to miss this step, but don’t forget it! A big reason for sharing the feedback is for change to happen, for example:

Conclusion

Giving feedback is a necessary part of life. Try this simple feedback formula next time a sticky situation comes calling. But keep it clean…remember S.O.A.P.