During a normal presentation, each person gets three minutes to share feedback related to the core challenge. Most of the time, people will only share their own personal experience related to the problem, but did you know there are several ways to structure your feedback? Here are five different ways you can give feedback:
1) “I can relate because I…”
By using this phrase, you are letting the person know that they are not alone. During difficult times, it can be very reassuring that a person knows others face the same challenge or feel the same way.
2) “I heard you say [insert their words] which makes me wonder if [add curious question]”
This gives you a chance to reflect on the person’s actual words. Sometimes people don’t even realize what they said until they hear their own words said back to them. When you ask your question, make sure it’s a question that you truly don’t know the answer to; otherwise, you are just leading the witness.
3) “Here’s what I did when I had this issue… “
This is your traditional personal experience share. Draw from your own life to share what you did when you were faced with this challenge. You can only draw on books you read or from people you know who went through the same challenge.
4) “If this were my challenge, here’s what I would do…”
We never want to give direct advice to a person for a variety of reasons I’ve discussed elsewhere, so this is a way to share what you would do but to frame it in a way that’s based on your perspective on the core challenge.
5) “I can support you with… “
Sometimes, it’s best to tell the person that you have access to a resource that might be helpful for their core challenge.
I often will have a cheat sheet with the starting phase for each of these types of feedback next to me, so when I have my three minutes of sharing, I can easily navigate to the type of feedback that will be best for the particular core challenge.