Feedback is vital to personal and professional development. We all need feedback to see things from more perspectives so we can improve and grow. As part of our commitment to self-improvement, we view feedback as a gift, and give it as an investment in our teammates and Buffer’s health overall.
We strive to give a lot of both feedback and gratitude. This is how a fully remote team can stay connected and move quickly. So, receiving feedback isn’t a sign that anything has gone wrong. If you’re not getting any feedback, then you might not be taking enough risks… or your teammates may not feel comfortable sharing feedback. In this case, please ask for feedback, and work with your manager or team to understand how you can be more receptive.
Feedback is most effective when given in all directions. Having a culture of peer feedback creates a culture of healthy and natural accountability, and decreases the need for top-down thinking. This works best when it’s paired with a culture of praise and gratitude, so please also love on your teammates often, from big milestones to little details.
We encourage you to give feedback freely, receive it with gratitude, and ask for it regularly.
Most of the time, we encourage you to give feedback directly to someone, either an individual or a member of leadership. Below are some guidelines for how to approach that.
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Alternatively, you may choose to speak to a person’s manager instead, or provide anonymous feedback through our Anonymous Feedback form.
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First, seek to understand. Your feedback is likely valid and helpful, and yet you may not have the full context. When you’d like to pass along some suggestions, you may want to do some research, or ask the person directly for more context. Or, you may simply acknowledge that you are lacking the full context. Some phrases for inspiration:
Then, you may want to ask for consent. In most cases, feedback is best received when the person is in the right headspace for it. It may not always be practical, but when the feedback isn’t time-sensitive, you can offer to share it when the other person is comfortable receiving it. In more serious cases, you may want to check their calendar to make sure you won’t be interrupting an important meeting or day. When possible, try to honor that teammate’s preferred feedback style, such as a video call so it can be discussed right away, or in written form, so the teammate can read it and process before discussing it live.
Then, share your advice. In most cases, this can be very lighthearted and does not have to feel serious. It can also be helpful to frame it as “advice for the future” rather than “feedback on the past” so it feels more like an investment in the person than a criticism. This is usually done 1:1, but in some cases it may be appropriate to have the conversation with a small group so it can start a discussion and all can learn together.
To help us all have a common and clear understanding of what we talk about when we say “feedback,” here is some language we can use.
Recognition / praise: celebration of a teammate's achievements. Recognition can come from anyone and should be given liberally! Places where you might see recognition include: