When it comes to giving feedback, I’ve noticed an interestingthing… Words! We may know what we intend to say, and we may know what we intend for it to mean, but have you ever noticed times when the words that we chose didn’t convey what we really meant? We need to think about what we are going to say and consider how the words could be heard. Think about the person that will be hearing these words for the first time on the receiving end. For instance, someone said to me the other day, “thank you for the feedback.” I had to think about these words for a minute because, in my mind, I wasn’t giving feedback, I was just offering an update on a specific situation. That person heard it as feedback. Let’s remember: our words matter and can create either clear or muddled communication.
