Strategies for Effective Communication

This chapter examines communication in general and demonstrates various considerations for effective communication in a variety of situations.

Giving Directions and Feedback

This is a form of oral report that you will have to make if you supervise other peoples' feedback on their coworkers' performance. Feedback can be constructive or destructive. As these words imply, only constructive feedback serves any useful purpose. When you must give feedback on someone's work, keep these tips in mind:

  • Focus on the work performance, not on the person
  • Be objective and descriptive rather than too personal
  • Start by mentioning things that the person is doing well
  • Keep the feedback to the point
  • Focus feedback on two or three things that the participant might be able to change in a short period of time
  • Give feedback as soon as possible after an event
  • Focus feedback on something a person can do something about
  • Never criticize a person in front of guests or other staff
  • Give the person a chance to comment

If you are responsible for the work of others, you will be checking that they do it correctly. You may find fault with some of their work even if they perform most of their job well. If you mention only the faults, the message is that they are doing everything wrong. By mentioning the things that they are doing right, they will better accept some things that could be improved.

Take an example where the apprentice under your supervision is making pastries. Destructive feedback would be, "Are you stupid or something? The oven needs to be preheated before you put the pastries in to bake!" Do not use blaming words or indulge in name calling ("You are so…"). When people feel blamed, they often tune out of the discussion and do not hear your positive suggestions for improvement.

Less destructive, but still not constructive, feedback would be, "You did not preheat the oven before you baked the pastry. You must make sure the oven has reached…"

Now compare this constructive feedback: "Phil, you're doing a good job with the pastry. They have a neat, attractive appearance and are well browned. I'm not sure you understand how critical the preheat time is. The quality of the finished product could be improved by…"