good assignment feedback

101 Positive Feedback Examples (Copy and Paste)

Positive feedback is essential for providing a supportive and encouraging environment – be it at school, in the workplace, or with personal relationships.

But it needs to be personalized, specific, and encouraging in order for it to have the most effect.

Below are 100 positive feedback examples that you can copy and paste – find the one that’s specific for your needs and then edit it so it’s more personalized for the person receiving the feedback.

Don’t forget to also embrace constructive feedback as well to give the person ideas about avenues for ongoing improvement.

Positive Feedback Examples

1. general praise.

• Excellent effort: It is clear to see that you put in your absolute best and this is a sign you’ll achieve great success in your life in the future.
• Writing Skills : Your writing skills are impressive. Specifically, your report started very clearly and remained readable through the body of the piece. The content was well-researched with use of authoritative sources.
• Presentation: Your presentation was engaging and informative. Well done! Thank you for the effort you put into preparing it.
• Creativity: Your creativity for this project has been outstanding. The design concept you came up with really sets our project apart.
• Customer Service: I appreciate your dedication to providing excellent customer service on behalf of the company. Our clients consistently praise your professionalism and helpfulness.
• Multitasking Skills : Your ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously while maintaining a high level of quality was impressive and makes me think you have a lot of potential in the workplace.
• Teamwork Skills: Your teamwork and collaboration skills such as your ability to find common ground have made a significant positive impact on our team’s dynamic and productivity.
• Leadership: Your leadership has been instrumental in driving the success of our project, and the team truly appreciates your guidance and support.
• Innovation: Your innovative ideas have led to significant improvements in our processes, saving both time and resources.
• Problem-Solving: Your problem-solving skills are exceptional; you always approach challenges with a positive attitude and find effective solutions.
• Public Speaking: Your public speaking skills have greatly improved; your recent presentation was engaging, well-delivered, and captured the audience’s attention.

2. Positive Feedback for Students

• Hard Work: Your hard work and dedication to your studies have led to a significant improvement in your grades. Always remember this as an exmaple of when hard work leads to self-improvement and mastery.
• Creativity: Your creativity and unique perspective on the assignment resulted in a thought-provoking and engaging project. Remember that creativity is your strength!
• Self-Confidence: You’ve shown great progress in your self-confidence, enabling you to tackle these challenges without hesitation. Keep on going, knowing you’re on the right track.
• Active Participation: Your active participation in class discussions has helped you to get really engaged in the coursework. It has also helped your classmates to see what it means to be a good learner.
• Collaboration Skills: Your ability to work well with your classmates on group projects demonstrates strong teamwork and collaboration skills. Specifically, you were very good at sharing ideas and brainstorming with your team.
• Attention to Detail: Your attention to detail and thoroughness is a strength. It ensures that you meet expectations and don’t go off track anymore.
• Time Management: You’ve shown great improvement in your time management skills. I’ve noticed you turning up to class more prepared and more ready to learn.
• Communication: Your ability to clearly articulate your thoughts and ideas in written communication is impressive. Your writing is always clear and concise.
• Seeking Feedback: Your willingness to seek help and learn from feedback demonstrates a strong commitment to personal success. Keep up that growth mindset !
• Enthusiasm: Your enthusiasm and passion for learning inspire both your classmates and your teachers.

3. Feedback Expressing Encouragement

• Keep it Up: Keep up the excellent work on the project; your dedication and focus are truly making a difference.
• Overcoming Challenges: I believe in your ability to overcome this challenge; your resilience and determination have always been inspiring.
• Making Progress: You’re making great progress in developing your skills; keep pushing yourself, and you’ll continue to achieve even greater success.
• Pushing through Setbacks: Don’t get discouraged by setbacks; you have the talent and drive to accomplish your goals.
• Keep Practicing: I can see how much effort you’ve put into improving your communication skills; continue practicing, and you’ll become even more effective.
• You’re on Track: You’re on the right track with your approach to problem-solving; keep refining your process, and you’ll achieve even better results.
• Positive Attitude: Your positive attitude and enthusiasm are contagious; continue to bring that energy to our team, and it will inspire everyone around you.
• Challenge Yourself: Keep exploring new ideas and challenging yourself; your creativity and innovation are valuable assets to our team.
• Leadership Skills : You’re showing great potential as a leader; continue to develop your leadership skills, and you’ll have a significant impact on our team’s success.
• Making Progress: Your progress in mastering new software is impressive; keep learning and growing, and you’ll become an invaluable resource for our team.

4. Feedback Expressing Recognition

• Outstanding Performance: I want to recognize your outstanding performance in meeting and exceeding our sales targets this quarter; your hard work has made a significant impact on our success.
• Invaluable contribution: Your contributions to the project have been invaluable, and I want to acknowledge your dedication to ensuring its successful completion.
• Exceptional customer service: I’d like to commend your exceptional customer service skills; we’ve received numerous positive reviews from our clients praising your responsiveness and professionalism.
• Efficiency improvement: Your ability to streamline our processes and increase efficiency has not gone unnoticed; thank you for your initiative and resourcefulness.
• Consistent attendance: I want to acknowledge your consistent punctuality and attendance; it demonstrates your commitment to our team and sets a great example for others.
• Conflict resolution: Your proactive approach in resolving conflicts within the team has been instrumental in maintaining a positive work environment; your leadership skills are truly appreciated.
• Excellent presentation: I’d like to recognize your excellent presentation skills; your recent presentation was both informative and engaging, and it clearly demonstrated your expertise in the subject matter.
• Mentorship contribution : Your mentorship of our new team members has played a crucial role in their successful onboarding and integration into the team; thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience.
• Effective multitasking: I want to acknowledge your impressive ability to multitask effectively, juggling multiple projects without compromising the quality of your work.
• Community outreach volunteering: Your volunteer efforts in organizing and participating in our company’s community outreach initiatives deserve recognition; your commitment to giving back is truly commendable.

5. Feedback Expressing Gratitude

• Timely completion: Thank you for going above and beyond to ensure the project was completed on time. I hope you’re proud of what you’ve produced!
• Colleague support: I’m grateful for your willingness to step up and help your colleagues when they needed someone to take up the slack. That sort of dedication makes a big difference in our team’s overall success.
• Team-building organizer: I appreciate your efforts in organizing the team-building event; it was a great success and helped to strengthen our team’s relationships.
• Thorough report: Thank you for your hard work in researching and preparing the report; your thoroughness made it an invaluable resource for our team.
• Commitment to team: Thank you for staying late to resolve that urgent issue; your commitment to our team is truly valued.
• Productivity improvement: I’m grateful for your initiative in developing a more efficient system for tracking our progress; it has significantly improved our productivity.
• Client-facing patience: Thank you for your patience and understanding in working with our clients, even when situations become challenging; it reflects positively on our company.
• Attention to detail: I appreciate your consistent attention to detail; it helps to ensure the quality of our work and minimizes errors.
• Valuable contribution to brainstorming: Thank you for your valuable input during our brainstorming session; your ideas and insights contributed significantly to shaping our project’s direction.
• Motivational support: I’m grateful for your support and encouragement during the difficult phase of the project; your positive attitude helped to keep the team motivated and focused.

6. Positive Feedback on Interviews

• Effective communication: You provided clear and concise responses to the interview questions, demonstrating your strong communication skills.
• Compelling presentation: Your ability to articulate your experiences and accomplishments in a compelling manner left a lasting impression on the interview panel.
• Thoughtful questioning: You asked thoughtful and relevant questions during the interview, showing your genuine interest in the position and the company.
• Professional demeanor: Your professional demeanor and positive attitude throughout the interview process made a strong impression on the hiring team.
• Problem-solving ability: You effectively showcased your problem-solving skills by providing specific examples of how you’ve tackled challenges in your previous roles.
• Company research: Your research on the company and its values demonstrates your commitment to finding a role that aligns with your interests and passions.
• Skills alignment: Your ability to connect your skills and experiences to the requirements of the position showcased your potential for success in the role.
• Interpersonal engagement: Your active listening and engagement during the interview indicated your strong interpersonal skills and ability to collaborate with others.
• Industry knowledge: You demonstrated a strong understanding of the industry and its challenges, positioning yourself as a knowledgeable candidate.
• Thoughtful follow-up: Your follow-up thank-you note after the interview was a thoughtful gesture that reinforced your interest in the position and appreciation for the opportunity.

7. Positive Feedback on Personal Growth

• Improved public speaking: I’ve noticed your increased confidence in public speaking; your practice and dedication are clearly paying off.
• Better time management: Your time management skills have improved significantly, allowing you to be more efficient and productive in your daily tasks.
• Developed leadership: I can see that you’ve made a concerted effort to develop your leadership skills, and it’s making a positive impact on our team.
• Impressive proficiency: Your growth in mastering new software and tools has been impressive, making you a valuable resource for our team.
• Clearer written communication: I’ve observed your progress in improving your written communication, and it’s made your reports much clearer and more concise.
• Enhanced analytical skills: The strides you’ve made in enhancing your analytical skills have resulted in more insightful and data-driven decision-making.
• Improved empathy: Your ability to handle difficult situations with more empathy and understanding has greatly improved, contributing to better interpersonal relationships within the team.
• Stronger client relationships: I can see your progress in building stronger client relationships, leading to increased trust and satisfaction.
• Improved problem-solving: Your commitment to personal development has led to a significant improvement in your problem-solving abilities.
• Expanded industry knowledge: You’ve made great strides in expanding your industry knowledge, making you a go-to resource for information and expertise on our team.

8. Positive Feedback on Teamwork Skills

• Effective collaborator: Your ability to collaborate effectively with others has played a crucial role in our team’s success.
• Supportive knowledge sharing: Your willingness to share your knowledge and expertise with your colleagues is truly appreciated and has fostered a supportive learning environment.
• Positive attitude and enthusiasm: Your positive attitude and enthusiasm make you a pleasure to work with, and it contributes to a great team dynamic.
• Skilled listener: You’re an excellent listener, and your ability to understand and consider the perspectives of your teammates has led to better decision-making within the team.
• Reliable team member: Your consistent reliability and dependability make you a valued team member that others can count on.
• Effective communicator: Your effective communication skills help keep the team informed and aligned on project goals and progress.
• Conflict mediator: Your ability to mediate conflicts and promote a harmonious work environment has been instrumental in maintaining strong teamwork.
• Helpful team player: You’re always willing to lend a helping hand to your colleagues, and your supportive nature makes a significant difference in our team’s success.
• Resilient under pressure: Your ability to work well under pressure and adapt to changing circumstances demonstrates great teamwork and resilience.
• Appreciative teammate: You consistently show appreciation for the efforts and contributions of your teammates, fostering a culture of recognition and gratitude within the team.

9. Positive Feedback on Initiative

• Proactive issue resolution: Your proactive approach to identifying and addressing potential issues has greatly contributed to the success of our project.
• Initiative in growth opportunities: I appreciate your initiative in seeking out new opportunities for growth and development within the team.
• Commitment to taking on challenges: Your willingness to take on additional responsibilities and challenges demonstrates your commitment and drive to succeed.
• Exceptional client service: Your ability to anticipate the needs of our clients and provide exceptional service without being prompted is truly impressive.
• Effective implementation of new tools: I commend your initiative in researching and implementing new tools and technologies that have improved our team’s efficiency.
• Industry trend awareness: Your proactive efforts to stay informed about industry trends and share that knowledge with the team have made a significant impact on our strategy and decision-making.
• Continuous learning: I appreciate your eagerness to learn and grow, continuously seeking out new resources and opportunities to expand your skills and expertise.
• Stakeholder relationship building: Your initiative in building relationships with key stakeholders has helped to strengthen our partnerships and collaboration.
• Process improvement: By identifying and addressing gaps in our processes, you’ve demonstrated a strong sense of initiative and commitment to continuous improvement.
• Feedback implementation: Your proactive approach to seeking feedback and implementing changes based on that feedback shows your dedication to personal and professional growth.

10. Positive Feedback on Leadership Skills

• Clear communication: Your ability to effectively communicate and articulate a clear vision for our team has been instrumental in our success.
• Collaborative leadership: Your leadership style encourages open dialogue and fosters a culture of trust and collaboration within the team.
• Motivational inspiration: Your ability to inspire and motivate your team members has contributed to a highly engaged and productive work environment.
• Exceptional mentorship: Your willingness to provide guidance, support, and mentorship to others demonstrates exceptional leadership qualities .
• Effective decision-making : Your ability to make tough decisions under pressure, while considering the best interests of the team and organization, is commendable.
• Fair conflict resolution: Your approach to conflict resolution is fair and balanced, promoting a harmonious and respectful team atmosphere.
• Appreciative recognition: Your consistent recognition and appreciation of team members’ efforts and contributions foster a culture of high performance and commitment.
• Effective delegation : Your ability to delegate tasks effectively and empower your team members to take ownership of their work is a key leadership strength.
• Commitment to learning: Your commitment to continuous learning and development, both for yourself and your team, sets an excellent example for others to follow.
• Emotionally intelligent leadership : Your strong emotional intelligence and ability to empathize with your team members have helped to create a supportive and inclusive work environment.

How to Give Positive Feedback

Feedback is often very hard to provide. As experts, we tend to have tacit knowledge of what looks good and what needs work, but this is very difficult to communicate in a simple and actionable way.

When giving your feedback, keep these tips in your mind, as they might help you to formulate more effective feedback:

• Be specific: Students get very frustrated when the feedback is too general and doesn’t given an exact example. So, be specific. Specificity means that you need to clearly describe what needs to be worked on and, if possible, point to the exact moment or place where the mistakes were made.
• Be genuine: Insincere feedback will be ignored. If the recipient thinks your praise is just performative, they won’t respect your opinions. In fact, sometimes the best positive feedback comes from someone who you know will give tough negative feedback if that’s what they genuinely think.
• Be timely: Timely feedback helps to reinforce an action or deter it in the future. If too much time has passed, the recipient will likely feel the feedback’s relevance has waned.
• Personalize it: Don’t make personal attacks, but rather, make it obvious that the feedback has been tailored to the person’s performance. I remember once my professor gave every student who got an A the same feedback, every student who got a B the same feedback, and so forth. Not many people in that class took the feedback seriously because they felt it didn’t directly address their paper.
• Strike a balance: The feedback shouldn’t all be overwhelmingly positive or else there’s no room for improvement. Offering constructive feedback alongside continuous and positive reinforcement can ensure the learner can identify ways to continually improve upon themselves over time.
• Encourage growth: Remind the recipient that feedback is about improvement, not tearing a person down or giving them a big ego. All feedback should be designed to elicit further improvement from the person.
• Offer examples: Often, examples of ways to improve are required in order for the recipient to truly understand what’s expected of them. Furthermore, noting specific examples of moments within their performance can help achieve more specificity in the work.
• Open a feedback loop: Ideally, the recipient of the feedback will have a chance to ask clarifying questions or explain themselves. Without dialogue, your feedback may feel unsupportive, miss the mark, or go over the recipient’s head. Conversation usually leads to better results.
• Allow a chance for improvement: Whenever possible, open the door for the recipient to demonstrate their growth in the future. This may be as simple as offering them the opportunity to come back and show you their next piece of work and tell you how they used your feedback.

By keeping these points in mind, you can provide positive feedback that is effective, meaningful, and supportive.

Strategy: The Feedback Sandwich

The feedback sandwich is an effective way to give constructive feedback that is framed positively and supportively.

This strategy is also known as the “praise-criticism-praise” or “compliment-suggestion-compliment” method.

The idea is to “sandwich” a piece of criticism or suggestion for improvement between two positive statements or compliments.

Because the feedback starts and ends positively, hopefully it will soften the impact of the criticism while also ensiring it is delivered.

This may help the recipient to know that you’re not just tearing them up – you have both positive feedback and constructive criticism to share, but your overall goal is to encourage and help them to improve.

Here’s a breakdown of the feedback sandwich method:

• Start with a positive statement: The first statement sets a positive tone by highlighting something you felt they did really well. This makes the recipient know you’re here to help and there is some value in their work.
• Offer constructive criticism: The middle feedback presents an area for improvement. Make sure that you’re specific and clear. Provide examples, if possible, and offer actionable suggestions to address this area for imprveoment for next time.
• End with another positive statement: Finish the feedback with something encouraging. Ensure it’s genuine, but also on a positive note. This helps to leave the conversation with a sense that the person receiving the feedback (and their work) has value.

One weakness of this approach is that it can come across as insincere. To address this, make sure your positive feedback is genuine and thoughtful.

Furthermore, ensure you allow for a chance to discuss and open the door for back-and-forth discussion about the person’s performance. Feedback should, ideally, be a two-way street and chance for discussion to help the person truly develop their skills.

Positive feedback is an essential part of helping students to understand the correct paths to take and when they did well so they can replicate that behavior. Praise and encouragement can help students stay engaged and develop self-confidence. Don’t forget to also provide constructive feedback that helps the learner know how to achieve self-improvement.

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ Forest Schools Philosophy & Curriculum, Explained!
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ Montessori's 4 Planes of Development, Explained!
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ Montessori vs Reggio Emilia vs Steiner-Waldorf vs Froebel
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ Parten’s 6 Stages of Play in Childhood, Explained!

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Feedback on your assignments: what it is and how to use it

This guide explains how to use your tutor's feedback so that you understand your grade and how to improve your academic performance..

• Understand your strengths and weaknesses

When you get your assignments back from your tutor, you will probably initially focus on the grade you have received.

However, your tutor will have given you useful and well thought-out feedback, with the purpose of a) helping you understand the grade and b) providing you with ideas for how to improve in future assignments. It is important that you make good use of this feedback to help you understand your strengths and weaknesses and what you need to do to improve on your grade.

There are three key things you need to do in order to maximise the usefulness of your tutor feedback:

• Understand the feedback : look at all the feedback provided (sometimes there are comments on your script as well as the overall comments), and read it carefully to ensure you understand each comment.
• Log your feedback : create a system of storing your feedback that is easily accessible.
• Use your feedback in future assignments : refer to your feedback in preparation for new assignments, and use it as a checklist.
• Understand the feedback

Tutors will have different ways of giving you feedback. Some will provide a written summary of your key strengths and weaknesses, and some will provide oral recorded feedback. You may also receive focused, itemised feedback on the script of your work.

Tutors will provide both positive and critical feedback. Generally, the positive feedback is easy to understand, but sometimes the critical feedback can be unclear or can use terminology that is not easy to understand. Some common critical comments are listed below with a glossary to explain what is meant, and suggestions for how to improve as a result of this feedback.

• Glossary of terms
• Log your feedback

Once you have read and understood the feedback you have received, it is important to create a system of storing it for future reference. This feedback is useful when preparing your next assignments, and you should find a system of storage that is easily accessible and works well for you.

Not everyone will like the same system. Here are a couple of examples of ways that students have stored their feedback to create an easy reference tool to use as a check list each time they start work on assignments.

Using a table

This method of logging and storing your feedback is commonly used. Here you create a table and cut and past feedback into the appropriate column. In addition, students often include a column for their grade, so that they can see which assignments are likely to have feedback that tells them not only what to improve, but also what to continue doing.

This is what it could look like as a student starts to fill it in:

Using a mind map

Another common way to log your feedback is by creating a mind map.

Use sections to group your feedback so that it is easily demarcated by comment-type. Mind maps work best with the key points from your feedback. It can be a useful review task to pull out the main issues raised by your tutor, and to summarise them using concise language.

Remember that you should choose a way to log your feedback that works best for you. It needs to be achievable and accessible to you, so that you can use it easily to review your tutors’ advice and learn from it.

• Use your feedback in future assignments

Once you have set up a system for collecting and storing your feedback, you have an important resource to help you improve on your work.

You need to revisit this feedback and review the comments frequently, in order to learn what your strengths and weaknesses are. You will start to identify themes, and this will help you to create a plan for how to improve.

For each new assignment, the following approach should help you to avoid making the same mistakes again, and allow you to consolidate the strengths you have.

• Summary and next steps
• Make sure you understand it and can see why your tutors are saying what they are saying.
• Create a storage system that suits you. Include your own reflection and ideas for what you need to do to improve.
• As you build up your feedback, start to collate it to show recurring themes and comments.
• Use your collated feedback as a guide and checklist when planning, preparing and reviewing your work.

Engaging with feedback resource

This short, interactive self-access resource shows you how to:

• use feedback as a powerful learning tool
• examine what might be preventing you from using feedback
• identify patterns in your feedback
• set goals and create a personal action plan.

If you have any questions, please contact us.

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5 effective constructive feedback examples: Unlocking student potential

This video provides an overview of the key features instructors need to know to make best use of Feedback Studio, accessed through the Turnitin website.

At Turnitin, we’re continuing to develop our solutions to ease the burden of assessment on instructors and empower students to meet their learning goals. Turnitin Feedback Studio and Gradescope provide best-in-class tools to support different assessment types and pedagogies, but when used in tandem can provide a comprehensive assessment solution flexible enough to be used across any institution.

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Providing constructive feedback examples to students is an important part of the learning journey and is crucial to student improvement. It can be used to feed a student’s love of learning and help build a strong student-teacher relationship. But it can be difficult to balance the “constructive” with the “feedback” in an effective way.

On one hand, we risk the student not absorbing the information, and therefore missing an opportunity for growth when we offer criticism, even when constructive. On the other hand, there is a risk of discouraging the student, dampening their desire to learn, or even harming their self-confidence. Further complicating the matter is the fact that every student learns differently, hears and absorbs feedback differently, and is at a different level of emotional and intellectual development than their peers.

We know that we can’t teach every student the exact same way and expect the same results for each of them; the same holds true for providing constructive feedback examples. For best results, it’s important to tailor how constructive feedback is provided based on content, student needs, and a variety of other factors.

In this blog, we’ll take a look at constructive feedback examples and the value of effective instructor feedback, centering on Dr. John Hattie’s research on “Where to next?” feedback. We’ll also offer key examples for students, so instructors at different grade levels can apply best practices right away.

In 1992 , Dr. John Hattie—in a meta-analysis of multiple scientific studies—found that “feedback has one of the positive influences on student achievement,” building on Sadler’s concept that good feedback can close the gap between where students are and where they aim to be (Sadler, 1989 ).

But before getting too far into specifics, it would be helpful to talk about what “constructive feedback” is. Not everyone will define it in quite the same way — indeed, there is no singular accepted definition of the phrase.

For example, a researcher in Buenos Aires, Argentina who studies medical school student and resident performance, defines it, rather dryly, as “the act of giving information to a student or resident through the description of their performance in an observed clinical situation.” In workplace scenarios , you’ll often hear it described as feedback that “reinforces desired behaviors” or, a definition that is closer to educators’ goals in the classroom, “a supportive way to improve areas of opportunity.”

Hattie and Clarke ( 2019 ) define feedback as the information about a learning task that helps students understand what is aimed to be understood versus what is being understood.

For the purposes of this discussion, a good definition of constructive feedback is any feedback that the giver provides with the intention of producing a positive result. This working definition includes important parts from other, varied definitions. In educational spaces, “positive result” usually means growth, improvement, or a lesson learned. This is typically accomplished by including clear learning goals and success criteria within the feedback, motivating students towards completing the task.

If you read this header and thought “well… always?” — yes. In an ideal world, all feedback would be constructive feedback.

Of course, the actual answer is: as soon, and as often, as possible.

Learners benefit most from reinforcement that's delivered regularly. This is true for learners of all ages but is particularly so for younger students. It's best for them to receive constructive feedback as regularly, and quickly, as possible. Study after study — such as this one by Indiana University researchers — shows that student information retention, understanding of tasks, and learning outcomes increase when they receive constructive feedback examples soon after the learning moment.

There is, of course, some debate as to precise timing, as to how soon is soon enough. Carnegie Mellon University has been using their proprietary math software, Cognitive Tutor , since the mid-90s. The program gives students immediate feedback on math problems — the university reports that students who use Cognitive Tutor perform better on a variety of assessments , including standardized exams, than their peers who haven’t.

By contrast, a study by Duke University and the University of Texas El Paso found that students who received feedback after a one-week delay retained new knowledge more effectively than students who received feedback immediately. Interestingly, despite better performance, students in the one-week delayed feedback group reported a preference for immediate feedback, revealing a metacognitive disconnect between actual and perceived effectiveness. Could the week delay have allowed for space between the emotionality of test-taking day and the calm, open-to-feedback mental state of post-assessment? Or perhaps the feedback one week later came in greater detail and with a more personalized approach than instant, general commentary? With that in mind, it's important to note that this study looked at one week following an assessment, not feedback that was given several weeks or months after the exam, which is to say: it may behoove instructors to consider a general window—from immediate to one/two weeks out—after one assessment and before the next assessment for the most effective constructive feedback.

The quality of feedback, as mentioned above, can also influence what is well absorbed and what is not. If an instructor can offer nuanced, actionable feedback tailored to specific students, then there is a likelihood that those students will receive and apply that constructive feedback more readily, no matter if that feedback is given minutes or days after an assessment.

Constructive feedback is effective because it positively influences actions students are able to take to improve their own work. And quick feedback works within student workflows because they have the information they need in time to prepare for the next assessment.

No teacher needs a study to tell them that motivated, positive, and supported students succeed, while those that are frustrated, discouraged, or defeated tend to struggle. That said, there are plenty of studies to point to as reference — this 2007 study review and this study from 2010 are good examples — that show exactly that.

How instructors provide feedback to students can have a big impact on whether they are positive and motivated or discouraged and frustrated. In short, constructive feedback sets the stage for effective learning by giving students the chance to take ownership of their own growth and progress.

It’s one thing to know what constructive feedback is and to understand its importance. Actually giving it to students, in a helpful and productive way, is entirely another. Let’s dive into a few elements of successful constructive feedback:

When it comes to providing constructive feedback that students can act on, instructors need to be specific.

Telling a student “good job!” can build them up, but it’s vague — a student may be left wondering which part of an assessment they did good on, or why “good” as opposed to “great” or “excellent” . There are a variety of ways to go beyond “Good job!” on feedback.

On the other side of the coin, a note such as “needs work” is equally as vague — which part needs work, and how much? And as a negative comment (the opposite of constructive feedback), we risk frustrating them or hurting their confidence.

Science backs up the idea that specificity is important . As much as possible, educators should be taking the time to provide student-specific feedback directly to them in a one-on-one way.

There is a substantial need to craft constructive feedback examples in a way that they actively address students’ individual learning goals. If a student understands how the feedback they are receiving will help them progress toward their goal, they’re more likely to absorb it.

Our veteran Turnitin team of educators worked directly with Dr. John Hattie to research the impact of “Where to next?” feedback , a powerful equation for goal-oriented constructive feedback that—when applied formatively and thoughtfully—has been shown to dramatically improve learning outcomes. Students are more likely to revise their writing when instructors include the following three essential components in their feedback:

• Issue: Highlighting and clearly describing the specific issue related to the writing task.
• Relevance: Aligning feedback explicitly to the stated expectations of the assignment (i.e. rubric).
• Action: Providing the learner with their “next steps,” appropriately guiding the work, but not giving away the answer.

It’s also worth noting that quality feedback does not give the answer outright to the student; rather, it offers guidelines and boundaries so the students themselves can do their own thinking, reasoning, and application of their learning.

As mentioned earlier, it's hard to balance the “constructive” with the “feedback” in an effective way. It’s hard, but it’s important that instructors learn how to do it, because how feedback is presented to a student can have a major impact on how they receive it .

Does the student struggle with self confidence? It might be helpful to precede the corrective part of the feedback acknowledging something they did well. Does their performance suffer when they think they’re being watched? It might be important not to overwhelm them with a long list of ideas on what they could improve.

Constructive feedback examples, while cued into the learning goals and assignment criteria, also benefit from being tailored to both how students learn best and their emotional needs. And it goes without saying that feedback looks different at different stages in the journey, when considering the age of the students, the subject area, the point of time in the term or curriculum, etc.

In keeping everything mentioned above in mind, let’s dive into five different ways an instructor could give constructive feedback to a student. Below, we’ll look at varying scenarios in which the “Where to next?” feedback structure could be applied. Keep in mind that feedback is all the more powerful when directly applied to rubrics or assignment expectations to which students can directly refer.

Below is the template that can be used for feedback. Again, an instructor may also choose to couple the sentences below with an encouraging remark before or after, like: "It's clear you are working hard to add descriptive words to your body paragraphs" or "I can tell that you conducted in-depth research for this particular section."

For instructors with a pile of essays needing feedback and marks, it can feel overwhelming to offer meaningful comments on each one. One tip is to focus on one thing at a time (structure, grammar, punctuation), instead of trying to address each and every issue. This makes feedback not only more manageable from an instructor’s point of view, but also more digestible from a student’ s perspective.

Example: This sentence might be difficult for your readers to understand. Reword this sentence so your meaning is clear to your audience.

Rubrics are an integral piece of the learning journey because they communicate an assignment’s expectations to students. When rubrics are meaningfully tied to a project, it is clear to both instructors and students how an assignment can be completed at the highest level. Constructive feedback can then tie directly to the rubric , connecting what a student may be missing to the overarching goals of the assignment.

Example: The rubric requires at least three citations in this paper. Consider integrating additional citations in this section so that your audience understands how your perspective on the topic fits in with current research.

Within Turnitin Feedback Studio, instructors can add an existing rubric , modify an existing rubric in your account, or create a new rubric for each new assignment.

QuickMark comments are sets of comments for educators to easily leave feedback on student work within Turnitin Feedback Studio.

Educators may either use the numerous QuickMarks sets readily available in Turnitin Feedback Studio, or they may create sets of commonly used comments on their own. Regardless, as a method for leaving feedback, QuickMarks are ideal for leaving “Where to next?” feedback on student work.

Here is an example of “Where to next?” feedback in QuickMarks:

It can be just as helpful to see a non-example of “Where to next?” feedback. In the image below, a well-meaning instructor offers feedback to a student, reminding them of what type of evidence is required in an argumentative essay. However, Issue and Action are missing, which leaves the student wondering: “Where exactly do I need to improve my support? And what next steps ought to be taken?”

Here is a non-example of “Where to next?” feedback in QuickMarks:

As an instructor in a STEM class, one might be wondering, “How do I apply this structure to my feedback?” While “Where to next?” feedback is most readily applied to English Language Arts/writing course assignments, instructors across subject areas can and should try to implement this type of feedback on their assignments by following the structure: Issue + Relevance + Action. Below is an example of how you might apply this constructive feedback structure to a Computer Science project:

Example: The rubric asks you to avoid “hard coding” values, where possible. In this line, consider if you can find a way to reference the size of the array instead.

As educators, we have an incredible power: the power to help struggling students improve, and the power to help propel excelling students on to ever greater heights.

This power lies in how we provide feedback. If our feedback is negative, punitive, or vague, our students will suffer for it. But if it's clear, concise, and, most importantly, constructive feedback, it can help students to learn and succeed.

Study after study have highlighted the importance of giving students constructive feedback, and giving it to them relatively quickly. The sooner we can give them feedback, the fresher the information is in their minds. The more constructively that we package that feedback, the more likely they are to be open to receiving it. And the more regularly that we provide constructive feedback examples, the more likely they are to absorb those lessons and prepare for the next assessment.

The significance of providing effective constructive feedback to students cannot be overstated. By offering specific, actionable insights, educators foster a sense of self-improvement and can truly help to propel students toward their full potential.

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5 Research-Based Tips for Providing Students with Meaningful Feedback

Feedback is an essential part of learning, but not all of it is productive. We’ve collected five best practices for giving students feedback.

In recent years, research has confirmed what most teachers already knew: Providing students with meaningful feedback can greatly enhance their learning and achievement.

Professor James Pennebaker from the University of Texas at Austin has been researching the benefits of frequent testing and the feedback it leads to. He explains that in the history of the study of learning, the role of feedback has always been central: “When people are trying to learn new skills, they must get some information that tells them whether or not they are doing the right thing. Learning in the classroom is no exception. Both the mastery of content and, more importantly, the mastery of how to think require trial-and-error learning.”

The downside, of course, is that not all feedback is equally effective, and it can even be counterproductive, especially if it’s presented in a solely negative or corrective way.

So what exactly are the most effective ways to use feedback in educational settings?

Although there is no quick or easy answer to this question, here are five research-based tips for providing students with the kind of feedback that will increase motivation, build on existing knowledge, and help them reflect on what they’ve learned.

1. Be as Specific as Possible

In a review of the available research titled “ The Power of Feedback ,” University of Auckland professors Helen Timperley and John Hattie highlight the importance of supplying learners with specific information about what they are doing right or wrong.

For example, feedback like “Great job!” doesn’t tell the learner what he did right, and likewise, a statement such as “Not quite there yet” doesn’t give her any insight into what she did wrong and how she can do better the next time around.

Instead, researchers suggest taking the time to provide learners with information on what exactly they did well, and what may still need improvement. They also note that it can be helpful to tell the learner what he is doing differently than before.

Has a student’s performance changed or improved since the last time you assessed her? Let her know about it, even if she still has a long way to go.

2. The Sooner the Better

Numerous studies indicate that feedback is most effective when it is given immediately, rather than a few days, weeks, or months down the line.

In one study that looked at delayed versus immediate feedback , the researchers found that participants who were given immediate feedback showed a significantly larger increase in performance than those who received delayed feedback.

Another research project , from the University of Minnesota, showed that students who received lots of immediate feedback were better able to comprehend the material they had just read.

Of course, it’s not always possible to provide students with feedback right on the spot, but sooner is definitely better than later.

3. Address the Learner’s Advancement Toward a Goal

Timperley and Hattie note that effective feedback is most often oriented around a specific achievement that students are (or should be) working toward. When giving feedback, it should be clear to students how the information they are receiving will help them progress toward their final goal.

4. Present Feedback Carefully

The way feedback is presented can have an impact on how it is received, which means that sometimes even the most well-meaning feedback can come across the wrong way and reduce a learner’s motivation.

Psychologist and author Edward Deci has identified three situations in which feedback could be counterproductive:

When learners feel too strictly monitored: If learners feel that they are being too closely monitored, they might become nervous or self-conscious, and as a result, disengaged from learning.

When learners interpret feedback as an attempt to control them: Learners may sometimes interpret feedback as an attempt to control them or tell them how they should be doing something rather than guidance on how to improve.

When learners feel an uncomfortable sense of competition: Feedback shared in a group setting could cause learners to feel like they have to compete with their peers. This can be another source of disengagement in learning.

To avoid these situations, Deci suggests fully explaining the purpose of any monitoring, and ensuring that learners understand how the feedback is meant to help them compete against their own personal bests rather than each other.

5. Involve Learners in the Process

The importance of involving learners in the process of collecting and analyzing performance-based data cannot be understated. Pennebaker says, “Students must be given access to information about their performance.... At the broadest level, students need to know if they actually have mastered the material or not. Giving them information about the ways they are studying, reading, searching for information, or answering questions can be invaluable.”

When students have access to this information, they develop an awareness of their learning, and are more easily able to recognize mistakes and eventually develop strategies for tackling weak points themselves.

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Giving feedback to your students.

Receiving feedback is an essential part of student learning and improvement. There are many approaches to how you give feedback to your students in your course, and the approach you choose should be an approach that suits your teaching style and the needs of your students.

Types of Feedback

The two predominant types of feedback are formative and summative. Formative can be viewed as feedback meant for revising, such as feedback on a draft or a low-stakes assignment. Think of it as the rest stop in a journey. Summative feedback is typically feedback on an assignment or project designed as a way for students to show their mastery. A typical example of a summative assessment is a final exam or project. You can read more about the different types of feedback here . Together, formative and summative feedback will help your students build on their work and understand how their work connects with the larger picture of the class.

Feedback can come in many different forms. The types of feeddback you give in your course will vary depending on your students needs, the assignment type, and your style:

• Personalized Feedback
• Automated Feedback
• Collective Feedback
• Peer Review

Check out our Real Time Connections Online: Feedback page to learn more about each type of feedback and how to make it happen in Canvas.

What will be different: the way your class community is built

• Feedback should center around what the student can do next. For formative feedback, this could be actionable steps for their next assignment. For summative feedback, it can be framed more broadly for future endeavors the student may take on.
• Feedback doesn’t equate to criticism. When discussing any weaknesses in student work, it is best to explore it through questions and how the weakness can be improved. If you find that written feedback doesn’t fully encapsulate the right tone, consider scheduling one-to-one meetings with students or recording audio or video feedback.
• Find balance. Give feedback when it matters. It’s not necessary to give in-depth feedback for everything -- it will burn your students out and it will certainly burn you out as well! Think about the assignments in your course where in-depth feedback could really impact your students’ future work.

Tools for Feedback

• Use Canvas. Canvas offers tools to help you give just-in-time feedback within small assignments. You can set feedback, based on student responses, to automatically appear after a student finishes a quiz. Providing feedback is also easy through Canvas’ Speedgrader tool. Check out our Instructional Technology Group’s guides or schedule an appointment with them here .
• Communicate expectations using rubrics. Rubrics are a good way to indicate to your students what’s important in your assignment. It’s also a way to maintain consistency when multiple members of the teaching staff are grading the same assignment. Here are some tips for creating and using rubrics in your class .

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Feedback for Learning

Feedback and revision are important parts of any learning experience. From in-class activities and assignments, to peer-reviewed manuscripts, feedback is essential for growth and learning. And yet, if students don’t reflect on or apply notes or comments, it can sometimes feel like feedback doesn’t matter all that much. Giving feedback can feel like an arduous process, and when it goes unused on student assignments, it can leave instructors feeling frustrated. This resource offers strategies to make giving feedback easier and more effective. While there are specific technologies (discussed below) that can help facilitate feedback in an online or hybrid/HyFlex learning environment, the strategies presented here are applicable to any kind of course (e.g.: large lecture, seminar) and across any modality (e.g.: synchronous, asynchronous, fully online, hybrid, or in-person).

On this page:

• Feedback for Learning: What and Why
• Characteristics of Effective Feedback
• Strategies for Giving Effective Feedback
• Facilitating Feedback with Columbia-Supported Technologies

Reflecting on Your Feedback Practices

• Resources & References

The CTL is here to help!

Seeking additional support with enhancing your feedback practices? Email [email protected] to schedule a 1-1 consultation. For support with any of the Columbia tools discussed below, email [email protected] or join our virtual office hours .

Interested in inviting the CTL to facilitate a session on this topic for your school, department, or program? Visit our Workshops To Go page for more information.

Cite this resource: Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning (2021). Feedback for Learning. Columbia University. Retrieved [today’s date] from https://ctl.columbia.edu/resources-and-technology/resources/feedback-for-learning/

Feedback for Learning: What and Why 

What is feedback and why does it matter .

Broadly defined, feedback is “information given to students about their performance that guides future behavior” (Ambrose et al., 2010, p. 125). Feedback can help set a path for students, directing their attention to areas for growth and improvement, and connecting them with future learning opportunities. At the same time, there is an evaluative component to feedback, regardless of whether it is given with a grade. Effective feedback tells students “ what they are or are not understanding, where their performance is going well or poorly, and how they should direct their subsequent efforts” (Ambrose et al., 2010, p. 137). In this way, feedback is essential to students’ learning and growth. 

It is not enough for students to receive feedback. They also need explicit opportunities to implement and practice with the feedback received. In their How Learning Works: Seven Research-based Principles for Smart Teaching , Ambrose et al. (2010) underscore the importance of feedback, coupled with opportunities for practice: “Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted feedback are critical to learning ” (p. 125, emphasis in original). They further highlight the interconnection of feedback, practice, and performance in relation to overarching course goals. 

Types of Feedback 

There is no one size fits all for feedback. While there are common characteristics of effective feedback (discussed further in the following section), the form it takes will change across contexts. It can also come at different points of time during an assignment. You might offer students backward-looking feedback on a final product, after a student has “done” something; this type of feedback is usually given alongside an assignment grade. Or, you might offer forward-looking feedback, providing students advice and suggestions while the work is still in progress. It can be helpful for students to receive both kinds of feedback, with opportunities for implementation throughout. Related, the kinds of questions or prompts you use in your feedback will vary based on the kinds of responses and revisions you’re trying to solicit from students. Types of feedback may include: corrective, epistemic, suggestive, and epistemic + suggestive (Leibold and Schwarz, 2015). 

These particular types of feedback are not exclusive of each other. It’s very common that the feedback you give will have elements of some, if not all, of these four types. What type you use at what point will depend on the goals of the assignment, as well as the goal of the feedback and the kinds of revision and responses you are trying to solicit.

Characteristics of Effective Feedback 

Effective feedback is: 

• Targeted and Concise: Too much feedback can be overwhelming; it can be difficult to know where to begin revising and where to prioritize one’s efforts. Use feedback to direct students’ attention to the main areas where they are likely to make progress; identify 2-3 main areas for improvement and growth. 
• Focused: To help prioritize the main areas you identify, align your feedback with the goals of the assignment. You might also consider what other opportunities students have had or will have to practice these skills. 
• Action-Oriented: Offer feedback that guides students through the revision process. Be direct and point to specific areas within the student’s work, offering suggestions for revision to help direct their efforts.
• Timely: Feedback is most useful when there is time to implement and learn from it. Offer frequent feedback opportunities ahead of a final due date (forward-looking feedback), allowing students to engage with your feedback and use it throughout their revision process. These opportunities for practice will help students develop further mastery of course material.    

Strategies for Giving Effective Feedback 

This section offers strategies for putting the characteristics of effective feedback into action. These strategies are applicable across class types (e.g.: large lecture, seminar) and modalities (e.g.: in-person, fully online, hybrid/HyFlex). 

Create a culture of feedback

Establish a respectful and positive learning climate where feedback is normalized and valued. This includes helping students see the value of feedback to their learning, and acknowledging the role that mistakes, practice, and revision play in learning. Offer students frequent opportunities to receive feedback on their work in the course. Likewise, offer frequent opportunities for students to give f eedback on the course. This reciprocal feedback process will help to underscore the importance and value of feedback, further normalizing the process. For support on collecting student feedback, see the CTL’s Early and Mid-Semester Student Feedback resource.  

Partner with your students 

As McKeachie writes in McKeachie’s Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers (2011) , “Effective feedback is a partnership; it requires actions by the student as well as the teacher” (p. 108). It’s not enough for you to just give feedback; students need to be involved throughout the process. You might engage students in a meta discussion, soliciting feedback about feedback. Engage students in conversations about what makes feedback most useful, its purpose and value to learning, and stress the importance of implementation.

You might also consider the role of peer review in the feedback process. While peer review should not replace instructor feedback, you can take into consideration the kinds of feedback students will have already received as you are reviewing their work. This can be particularly helpful for larger classes where multiple rounds of feedback from the instructor and/or TAs is not possible. For support on engaging students in peer review, see the CTL’s Peer Review: Intentional Design for Any Course Context resource.  

Align your feedback with the learning objectives

When giving feedback, be sure that your comments and suggestions align with overall course objectives, as well as the goals of the assignment. One helpful way to be sure your feedback aligns with learning objectives is to have a rubric. A rubric is an assessment tool that “articulates the expectations for an assignment by listing the criteria or what counts, and describing levels of quality” (Malini Reddy & Andrade, 2010, p. 435). Rubrics help make the goals and purpose of the assignment explicit to students, while also helping you save time when giving feedback. They are typically composed of three sections: evaluation criteria (e.g.: assignment learning objectives, what students are being assessed on); assessment values (e.g.: “excellent, good,  and poor,” letter grades, or a scale of 1-5, etc.); and a description of each assessment value (e.g.: a “B” assignment does this…). If using rubrics, you might consider co-constructing the rubric with your students based on the assignment prompt and goals. This can help students take more ownership of their learning, as well as provide further clarification of your expectations for the assignment.   

Keep your feedback focused and simple 

Keep in mind the key skills or competencies you hope students will practice and master in the particular assignment, and use those to guide your feedback. As John Bean writes in Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom (2011), “Because your purpose is to stimulate meaningful revision, your best strategy is to limit your commentary to a few problems that you want the student to tackle when preparing the next draft. It thus helps to establish a hierarchy of concerns, descending from higher-order issues (ideas, organization, development, and overall clarity) to lower-order issues (sentence correctness, style, mechanics, spelling, and so forth)” (p. 322). When considering your hierarchy of concerns, keep in mind the stage of the student’s draft: early drafts benefit more from higher-order feedback, as the specifics of the assignment may shift and change as the student continues drafting and revising. A later draft, closer to being “finished,” may benefit from lower-order concerns focusing on style and mechanics. 

Consider the timing of your feedback 

Be sure to offer multiple opportunities for feedback throughout the course; this frequency will also help support the culture of feedback discussed above. It’s also important that you consider when students will receive feedback from you, and what they will do with it; remember that, “if students are to learn from feedback, they must have opportunities to construct their own meaning from the received message: they must do something with it, analyze it, ask questions about it, discuss it with others and connect it with prior knowledge” (Nicol et al., 2014, p. 103). Give students time to implement your feedback whether to revise their work or apply it to future assignments. 

Change up your mode of delivery 

While the focus of feedback shifts depending on the assignment goals and your course context, you might also consider changing up the mode of your feedback delivery. Written comments, whether throughout the text or summarized at the end of the assignment, are valuable to students’ learning, but they are not the only way to deliver effective feedback: 

• Audio/video feedback: To help save yourself time, and to humanize your feedback, consider using audio or visual feedback (Gannon, 2017; Cavanaugh and Song, 2014). Most instructors can talk through their ideas quicker than they can handwrite or type them, making audio feedback a timesaver. Audio feedback allows students to hear your tone and intended delivery. Audio/video feedback is particularly useful for fully online asynchronous courses, as it allows students an opportunity to connect with you, the instructor, on a more personal level than typed comments might provide . 

1-1 meetings: Consider using your office hours or other scheduled meetings to talk with students 1-1 about their work. You might ask students to explain or paraphrase the feedback they received. Prompts can include: 1) What was the feedback?; 2) What did you learn from my feedback?; 3) Based on the feedback, how will you improve your work?

Small group meetings : If you have a larger class, you might consider creating feedback groups where students will have read each other’s work and peers can share their feedback alongside you in a small group synchronous meeting. (This method can work regardless of the assignment being a group project or an individual assignment.) If teaching a fully online or hybrid/HyFlex course, these meetings can be facilitated in a dedicated Zoom meeting, or during class time using Zoom breakout rooms.   

Facilitating Feedback with Columbia-Supported Technologies 

While there is no shortage of technologies to help facilitate effective feedback, as this Chronicle of Higher Education Advice Guide highlights, it’s recommended that you work with tools supported by Columbia. These tools come with the added benefit of University support, as well as a higher likelihood of student familiarity. The technology you choose should align with the goals of the assignment and feedback; remember, keep it simple. While these technologies can help facilitate feedback for face-to-face courses, they are particularly useful for those teaching in a fully online or hybrid/HyFlex modality. 

For further support with setting up one of these platforms and making it work for your course context, please contact the Learning Designer liaison for your school to schedule a consultation, or drop in to our CTL Support Office Hours via Zoom. 

CourseWorks (Canvas)

CourseWorks offers a number of built-in features that can help facilitate effective feedback, furthering your students’ growth and learning, and helping to save you time in the process. Note: some of these features require initial enabling on your CourseWorks page. For help setting up your CourseWorks page, and further information about CourseWorks features, visit the CTL’s Knowledge Base . The CTL also offers two self-paced courses: Intro to CourseWorks (Canvas) Online and Assessment and Grading in CourseWorks (Canvas) Online , as well as live workshops for Teaching Online with CourseWorks .  

Gradebook Comments 

If using the CourseWorks Gradebook, you can attach summative feedback comments for your students; this is especially helpful when offering backward-looking feedback on assignments already submitted. For help on adding general Gradebook comments, see the Canvas Help Documentation: How do I leave comments for students in the Gradebook? .  

Quiz Tool Feedback

If you are using the CourseWorks quiz tool, you generate automated feedback for correct and/or incorrect responses. For correct responses, you might consider expanding upon the response, making connections across course materials. For an incorrect response, you might direct the student’s attention to particular course materials (e.g.: video, chapter in a textbook, etc.). For help with generating automated feedback in quizzes, see the Canvas Help Documentation: What options can I set in a quiz? . 

As previously discussed, rubrics can be a great way to both align feedback with the goals of an assignment, and save time while giving feedback. You can create rubrics for your assignments within CourseWorks to further support this process. It is also possible to copy over and edit rubrics across assignments, which is particularly helpful when reviewing different drafts or components of the same assignment. For further support on creating and using rubrics in CourseWorks, see the Canvas Help Documentation: How do I add a rubric to an assignment? . 

SpeedGrader

Within SpeedGrader , there are a number of ways to provide students with feedback. One key benefit of SpeedGrader is that it allows instructors to view, grade, and comment on student work without the need to download documents, which can greatly reduce the time needed to grade student work. Using the DocViewer , you can annotate within a student’s assignment using a range of commenting styles, including: in-text highlights and other edits, marginal comments, summative comments on large areas of an assignment, handwritten or drawing tools, and more. Comments can also be made anonymously. 

You can also offer students holistic assignment comments ; these particular comments are not specific to any one part of the assignment, but rather, appear as a summary comment on the project as a whole. There are a number of options for the mode of these comments, including: a brief text comment, an attachment (e.g.: a Word doc or PDF), or an audio/video comment. There is also a space for students to leave a message in response to your feedback, which can encourage them to more deeply engage with, and reflect upon, your feedback. For more detailed instructions on using the different tools, please see the Canvas Help Documentation: How do I add annotated comments in student submissions?  

Gradescope 

Although Gradescope is more commonly used as an assessment and grading tool, there are a few features to support giving feedback; it is particularly useful when providing feedback on handwritten assignments submitted digitally, or on those assignments using particular software (e.g.: LaTex, other coding and programming languages, etc.). In Gradescope, you can provide comments and feedback using LaTex , making it easier to give feedback on assignments using mathematical equations or formulas. Gradescope also allows for in-text feedback and commenting using a digital pen or textbox ; this allows for feedback on hand-written assignments submitted digitally. For more Gradescope support, see the CTL’s Creating Assignments and Grading Online with Gradescope resource. 

While Panopto is typically used for recording course videos and lectures, it can also be helpful for providing students with video walkthrough feedback of their assignments. Using Panopto, you can screencast your student’s assignment while also recording your audio feedback. This can help humanize your feedback, while also simulating a 1-1 conference or meeting with the student. An added benefit of using Panopto is that you can edit the recording before sharing it with your student (e.g.: removing pauses, rephrasing comments, etc.). For further support on getting started and using Panopto, see the CTL’s Teaching with Panopto resource. 

Like Panopto, you can also use Zoom to record a feedback walkthrough. The one major difference is that Zoom recordings are done in a single take; there is no opportunity to edit the recording. Zoom is also great for meeting with students either 1-1 or in small groups. If using synchronous class time for small group feedback sessions, you can “circulate” between breakout rooms to check in with students and offer feedback. For further Zoom support, see the CTL’s Teaching with Zoom resource, or visit CUIT’s Zoom support page . ​

Reflecting back, can you tell if your past feedback practices were effective? Did your students understand and use the feedback you gave? Did their work improve as a result of the feedback given? What small changes to your feedback practices would benefit you and your students? 

With an upcoming assignment in mind, reflect on the following questions to guide your future feedback practices: 

• How can you make your feedback targeted and concise? Consider the biggest challenge to the student’s success in the assignment. 
• What will be the focus of your feedback? Focus on the most important skills or competencies you hope students will gain from the assignment. 
• What type of feedback will you give (corrective, epistemic, suggestive, epistemic and suggestive, some other combination)? Connect the type of feedback you offer to the goals of the feedback and revision. 
• How much time will students have to implement your feedback and revise? If students only receive feedback on the final products (with or without a grade), how will you help them use this feedback on future assignments?    
• How can the student implement your feedback? Suggest places for students to begin.
• When will students receive feedback? What would be most useful to help students implement your feedback and further practice these skills? 
• What will be the mode of delivery for the feedback? What technologies will you use?

Resources & References 

Ctl resources .

Creating Assignments and Grading Online with Gradescope

Peer Review: Intentional Design for Any Course Context  

Ambrose, S.A., Bridges, M.W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M.C., & Norman, M.K. (2010). How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching . Jossey-Bass. 

Bean, J. (2011). Engaging ideas: The professor’s guide to integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning in the classroom, 2nd ed. Jossey-Bass. 

Cavanaugh, A.J. & Song, L. (2014). Audio feedback versus written feedback: Instructors’ and students’ perspectives . MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 10 (1), 122-138.  

Desrochers, C. G., Zell, D., & Torosyan, R.  Provided meaningful feedback on students’ academic performance . The IDEA Center. 

Fiock, H. & Garcia, H. (2019, November 11). How to give your students better feedback with technology advice guide . Chronicle of Higher Education.   

Gannon, K. (2017, November 26). How to escape grading jail . Chronicle of Higher Education.  

Leibold, N. &  Schwarz, L. M. (2015). The art of giving online feedback . Journal of Effective Teaching. 15 (1), 34-46. 

Malini Reddy, Y. & Andrade, H. (2010). A review of rubric use in higher education . Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 35 (4), 435-448.  

McKeachie W.J. (2011). McKeachie’s teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers, 13th ed. Wadsworth Cengage Learning. 

Nicol, D., Thomson, A., & Breslin, C. (2014). Rethinking feedback practices in higher education: A peer review perspective . Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education , 39 (1), 102-122.   

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Formative Assessment and Feedback

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Formative assessments are usually meant to measure learning in order to provide feedback. This kind of formative feedback is given throughout the duration of the course and is given in a spirit of growth and improvement. It helps students see how well they are understanding and communicating course concepts, what they might be missing, and how they can improve and deepen their learning. It is a crucial part of the learning process.

Benefits of formative feedback

Formative feedback helps students recognize gaps in their knowledge, areas to improve, what support resources they may need, and learning strategies they might change or adapt to meet the course outcomes. Without formative feedback, students may not be aware of their own misunderstandings. This can later lead to confusion and cause students to lose motivation.

Examples of formative feedback 

Synchronous in-person feedback from the instructor.

Providing verbal feedback directly to a student in person or in a Zoom web conference allows you to have a conversation where you can ask and answer questions. This can make it easier to identify misunderstandings, provide motivational support, or demonstrate a strategy or content. 

However, this kind of feedback can be time-consuming, especially if it is provided individually. Moreover, some students may feel intimidated by receiving feedback in such a way. Consider combining a variety of methods for giving formative feedback that fits the needs of your students, teaching situation, and content.

Written notes from the instructor

Give students some written feedback on smaller assignments. This can be valuable, especially in environments where opportunities for informal in-person feedback are less frequent.

To avoid spending too much time responding to every minor assignment, consider creating a spreadsheet or grid with your student's names, and keeping track of when you give certain students feedback on smaller assignments. This way you can distribute feedback equitably, ensuring that all students at some point in the quarter receive some feedback on a minor assignment before receiving a grade or final feedback on a larger assignment.

• Tools like  Canvas SpeedGrader  and  Gradescope  can make giving feedback much more efficient.
• With a tablet and stylus from the iPads for Teaching program , you can also digitally annotate submitted assignments with handwritten feedback.

Audio-based memos from the instructor

Recording an audio message can be a great way to communicate feedback you might have otherwise given in person. It can also be motivating to students to hear your voice and receive feedback in a way that might feel more informal. Be prepared to be flexible if some students need written text instead of audio.

• Canvas SpeedGrader  allows instructors to record audio comments when grading assignments
• Canvas Discussions  forums also are able to record audio comments

Video feedback from the instructor

When giving feedback on a student project or assignment heavy in visuals, it might be helpful to create video feedback of you interacting with their work. This kind of feedback can include audio feedback, a screen recording, and a camera recording of the instructor.

Showing your students what you're seeing and noticing about their work can be extremely powerful. Do keep accessibility concerns in mind if you choose to leave feedback in this way, noting when students might not be able to access or engage with visuals.

• Create a video recording in Zoom  to easily provide this kind of feedback to students.

Peer feedback among students

In situations where students have relevant expertise or experience, formative feedback from student peers can be valuable. Consider how you can provide an easy way for students to provide each other with feedback. For example, you might instruct students to upload their work as a shared Google Document that team members can comment on or facilitate a small group feedback activity during a class meeting. For aggregated feedback, you might use a poll or survey with a tool such as Poll Everywhere to gather feedback from a large group.

It is first important to provide clear instructions and model what kind of feedback is most helpful. Encourage students to be specific and identify discrete components of the work being commented on. Feedback ideally offers an actionable solution or suggestion to improve, leaving the person receiving feedback with a clear idea of what steps to take. Good feedback should also be kind and supportive of the individual and their improvement.

• Giving Assessment Feedback

Feedback has a significant impact on learning (Cohen & Singh, 2020); it has been described as "the most powerful single moderator that enhances achievement" (Hattie, 1999). The main objectives of feedback are to:

• identify and reward specific qualities in student work
• guide students on what steps to take to improve
• motivate them to act on their assessment
• develop their capability to monitor, evaluate and regulate their own learning (Nicol, 2010).

To benefit student learning, feedback needs to be:

• constructive. As well as highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of a given piece of work, it should set out ways in which the student can improve the work.
• timely . Give feedback while the assessed work is still fresh in a student's mind, before the student moves on to subsequent tasks.
• meaningful . It should target individual needs, be linked to specific assessment criteria, and be received by a student in time to benefit subsequent work.

Like all assessment practices, both summative and formative, feedback should include the provision of "quality, timely feedback" (refer to the UNSW Assessment Policy ).

Feedback needs to be provided throughout the course, rather than just at the end. Regular, constructive feedback enables students to incorporate feedback into later assessment tasks.

Ideally, you should incorporate assessment feedback as part of the assessment design. When you tell students about the assessment requirements, include information on how and when feedback will be provided, and what specific opportunities they will have to engage with and use feedback in their subsequent learning.

Constructive, timely and meaningful feedback:

• encourages students to think critically about their work and to reflect on what they need to do to improve it
• helps them see their learning in new ways and gain increased satisfaction from it
• helps promote dialogue between staff and students.

Effective feedback:

• guides students to adapt and adjust their learning strategies
• guides teachers to adapt and adjust teaching to accommodate students' learning needs
• guides students to become independent and self-reflective learners, and better critics of their own work
• stimulates reflection, interaction and dialogue about learning improvement
• is constructive, so that students feel encouraged and motivated to improve
• has consequences, so that it engages students by requiring them to attend to the feedback as part of the assessment
• is efficient, so that staff can manage it effectively.

Students often find assessment feedback unsatisfactory, for a wide range of reasons:

• When feedback is unclear (for example, "More", "What's this?", "Link?", or simply ticks and crosses), students  may not be able to gauge whether a response is positive or negative, whether and how the feedback is related to their mark and what they might do to improve.
• When feedback consists mainly of grammar and spelling corrections, and provides little or no advice for them to act on, students cannot tell what they have done well, what they need to change and why they have achieved the grade they have.
• Many assessment tasks are one-offs, intended for students to demonstrate their achievement for a summative grade; students cannot respond to the feedback with a further submission. Such tasks do not encourage risk-taking, experimentation, creativity or practice.
• Feedback that does not acknowledge how students' learning has progressed over time does not give them a sense of how far they have come and what they have yet to achieve.
• Students can encounter different (and inconsistent) comments from different lecturers on similar pieces of writing.

Academic staff report a range of concerns about assessment feedback:

• Preparing good-quality assessment feedback for students is very time-consuming, in spite of its potential value for improving learning.
• When evidence suggests that students have not read or acted on the feedback, teachers see the time and effort put into it as wasted.
• Giving feedback can be repetitive and unproductive. Academics often find themselves giving the same or very similar feedback to many students, or giving the same feedback to repeated efforts by one student, with no change occurring in that student's performance.
• Students can focus on negative comments and fail to register positive comments.

If feedback is provided too late to influence learning, neither can it influence teaching, as staff do not have time to adjust their teaching in response to students' performance.

Devising strategies for feedback can save a great deal of time by reducing:

• the number of complaints from students who believe they have been unfairly marked
• the amount of time lecturers spend reading assignments that do not meet the task description
• the amount of confusion between markers as to what the submission is supposed to look like.

Plan for assessment feedback

Modes of feedback.

You can provide assessment feedback to students in different modes, at different times and places, and with different goals. In designing for feedback, consider how to optimise feedback across a number of dimensions, as outlined in Table 1.

Table 1: Dimensions of feedback modes

In any one course, the feedback plan would ideally incorporate a mixture of dimensions appropriate to the assessment activity and the students' needs.

You can think of the STUDENT-LED/TEACHER-LED dimension as a dialogue between student and teacher, using feedback (Nicol, 2010). Other people may also be involved in providing feedback, such as a student's supervisor in a work-integrated learning setting, or an invited guest from a professional, community or industry body.

Prepare students for feedback

Ensure that students and teachers have a shared understanding of what feedback is, and what it is for. Students may struggle to understand assessment criteria and the academic language used in feedback, so make sure you communicate clearly.

Be explicit about the details of feedback processes and expectations. Ensure that students understand why they are getting feedback and how their learning can benefit from their reflecting, and acting, on feedback.

If students and teachers discuss, and jointly construct, the feedback procedures, a shared understanding will develop. A student guide such as that produced by Hepplestone et al. (2010) is one way of making this understanding explicit.

To develop a shared language about assessment and feedback, you can, for example:

• annotate and distribute a range of sample student responses on the same task to illustrate different levels of performance
• use annotated examples as a basis for class discussion
• let students undertake their own assessments of unannotated examples, justifying the kind of feedback and/or grades they would give, and perhaps annotating the examples for use in a future class.

Align feedback with assessment criteria

A rubric can help you as you mark, ensuring that you don't overlook critical components of the intended learning outcomes in your feedback.

You can use an assessment rubric:

• to guide the interpretation and grading of student work
• to help you frame feedback by making explicit the relationship between assessment criteria and the grade
• to help students understand the rationale for their grade through criterion-based feedback.

For further information on rubrics, see Using Assessment Rubrics .

Feedback that applies to the whole class

When you give generic feedback about all students' performance in assessment tasks, you help each student to see where they fit within the range of achievements in the class. It's also efficient, and can be used in conjunction with private written or verbal feedback to each student.

Generic feedback can be delivered orally in tutorials or lectures, by email or by voice email or voice presentation in a Learning Management System (Moodle). You can then ask the students to identify what action they could take to improve their own performance.

Incorporate peer feedback

Not only does peer assessment provide quick feedback to the student and reduce teachers' workloads, but it can also help students develop autonomy and improve their learning.

As part of peer assessment, consider:

• involving students and teachers in a discussion of assessment criteria
• jointly constructing a standard peer-assessment and feedback template.

Students can then use this template to provide feedback for each other.

Students must be free to be honest in their feedback. Making the process anonymous can help here, although you may want them to include their name on feedback that only the teacher can see.

Give feedback in lectures

Lectures are good for providing feedback efficiently to a whole cohort, particularly for large classes. You can identify and address common issues in student assignments, verbally or in a summary handout. To promote dialogue:

• Ask students to write brief responses (anonymously or not, as you/they prefer) on a particular topic.
• Collect them.
• Read the responses. They will alert you to common misconceptions the students hold.
• Respond to the comments straightaway (the use of clickers in large classes can enable a more immediate dialogue about the class's different conceptions and perceptions) or in a subsequent lecture (a common pattern is to use the last five minutes of one lecture to invite students to write, then the first five minutes of the next lecture to talk about the responses).

Give feedback in tutorials

Use feedback to help students understand:

• how their lectures and tutorials or seminars are interrelated
• how to use tutorial feedback to reflect on what they learn in lectures.

Group work in seminars can help students identify ideas where they want further clarification; group work discussions encourage dialogue and reciprocal feedback. Any issues the group has can be either addressed by the tutor or lecturer or exchanged with other groups for mutual problem-solving.

Use lists of common mistakes or issues

To increase efficiency, when marking written assignments develop a numbered list of common mistakes or issues, along with tips on how to address them. Then, when individual students make one of these common errors, you only need to write the issue number. You may want to distribute the feedback sheet to the students while they are working on the assessment, as well as when returning the class assignments.

This method can easily devolve into primarily focusing on problems or faults. To correct this tendency, you can either:

• build an equivalent list of common areas of excellence in your students' work, or
• only use the list within an overall feedback framework that also gives students credit when they do things well.  

Be clear about the type of feedback you are providing

It can be useful to classify the type of feedback you are providing. For example, does it relate to the submission's structure, organisation, language, conventions or content? Sample comments are listed below for these five aspects:

• Structure: "Your abstract should be placed before your table of contents."
• Organisation: "Good problem statement. Where is your outline?"
• Language: "(1) Word choice could be more accurate. (2) Clauses/ideas could flow better."
• Conventions: "Which reference system are you using? Some of your references are inconsistent."
• Content: "The structure of materials, rationale, functions and operation is good, but there is no mention of the process you undertook to generate these ideas."

Extend the feedback dialogue with students

When you require students to respond to your feedback, the resulting interaction means that they are more likely to learn from it, and that you are more likely to help them develop their ability to reflect on and monitor their own learning. Here are some strategies for extending teacher–student dialogue about feedback:

• Teachers mark assignments, providing written feedback, and return it to the students. Students analyse the feedback, then indicate the extent to which they agree with it and what they will do to address the feedback and further develop as learners. Before they submit this feedback-on-feedback, encourage them to discuss their responses with their peers. After submission, teachers can respond to students if necessary.
• The "patchwork text" is a formative assessment strategy. Throughout a course, students complete a sequence of short assignments that make up an integrated whole. For each assignment they receive feedback from a peer and/or tutor. They can respond to this feedback, and act on it, incorporating what they've learnt into further assignments in the sequence (Moen & Brown, 2017).
• Ask students on what aspects of their work they want feedback (Nicol, 2010). They can complete a self-assessment sheet, asking you to focus on a particular area. Or you can ask them, when they submit an assignment, to append a reflection on their work, which can be in response to a set of questions. You might ask them, for example, to identify the weaknesses and strengths of their assignment. The marker responds to this self-assessment when providing feedback.
• When students are given a grade on returned work, they are less likely to look at the accompanying feedback (Black et al., 2004). Sometimes it's best to give the feedback separately, so that students will engage with it. For example, give individual feedback first, and require the students to reflect on and respond to it in terms of their own learning. Only when they have done this do you release the grade to them. You can use this approach in a tutorial or seminar by having students discuss and reflect on feedback with their peers before you give them their grades, or book an appointment with their tutor to discuss their feedback and then receive the grade.

Ensure consistency of feedback among teaching staff

• Hold a moderation meeting with all tutors/lecturers who will be marking assessments to agree on assessment criteria and feedback (type and level of detail).
• Provide markers with a model student response from a past assessment task to indicate what you are expecting, in terms of both structure and level of detail.
• Provide markers with a standardised rubric (Table 2 gives an example of a marking criterion based on a course learning outcome) to indicate what is being marked and what constitutes a good, fair or poor answer.

Table 2: Sample rubric criterion

Use technology

Using technology to give feedback can be as simple as switching on the Track Changes function in Word to comment on students' work, or thinking aloud to a voice email while you read students' work. Or you can use a more sophisticated online adaptive learning tool to provide automated feedback to students as they progress through a learning module.

Online tools

Tools supporting assessment, such as those available in Moodle and Turnitin, are particularly useful for providing formative feedback to students. They offer features like:

• flexibility, in that students can choose the time and place to take an assessment
• direct links from feedback to appropriate learning resources
• opportunities for practice in a private online space where students can feel comfortable making mistakes and repeating assessments
• immediate feedback
• increased accessibility to feedback for students with disabilities
• efficiency in providing feedback to large cohorts.

In tests and quizzes, you can provide standardised feedback for particular student responses (or response types). This takes some work to set up, but reduces the workload once students start completing the test or quiz. Consider your feedback comments carefully; ideally, you can involve your students in the development and evaluation of standardised comments.

Online feedback on written work

In Learning Management Systems such as Moodle , the system's built-in assignment submission tools include functions for providing feedback and recording grades and returning them to the student. Using Turnitin's OriginalityCheck tool for assignment submission enables you to check for correct citation and possible plagiarism, and the GradeMark tool allows you to annotate submitted papers directly.

Within GradeMark, you can use the QuickMark function to select a suitable comment from (and add your own comments to) the pre-set feedback library. This saves you time typing the same feedback repeatedly for common errors.

Students can use Track Changes in Word to give each other feedback. Tools such as wikis encourage collaboration and conversation regarding feedback, and constitute a record of students' contributions and responses to feedback.

Feedback through multiple-choice question items

Well-designed multiple-choice questions, with pre-written feedback for each choice, can provide tailored formative feedback. In Moodle, you can add feedback to test questions as you construct them. With tools such as Questionmark Perception (QMP), you can create develop, assess and report on surveys, tests and quizzes, using a wide variety of question types and incorporating automated feedback.

You can use Audience Response Systems such as clickers in face-to-face classroom teaching for multiple purposes, including providing instant feedback and facilitating a peer-feedback process.

Adaptive tutorials with customised feedback

You can incorporate customised feedback in the interactive learning materials you create. For example, you can use Moodle's Lesson activity to design a self-directed learning module with integrated feedback and adaptive tutorials.

Audio feedback

Using audio feedback can engage students and enhance your teaching presence. Many tools available on Moodle, such as Voice Board, Voice Email and Voice Presentation from the Wimba suite, could be used to provide audio feedback.

Ensure fairness

When designing feedback, take account of any student diversity issues that may affect a student's capacity to receive and respond to feedback. For example, providing hand-written comments on an assignment by a student with a visual impairment would render this feedback inaccessible.

Many feedback-supporting technologies are especially valuable in supporting diversity, not only in allowing you to make adjustments for students with disabilities. For example, students from non-English-speaking backgrounds may find that automated feedback that they receive when they repeatedly complete an online quiz, familiarises them better with language and terminology than does orally delivered feedback in lectures and tutorials.

In general, the wider the repertoire you employ to engage students in learning through feedback, the more likely it is that you will meet students' diverse needs and enhance their learning.

• Clickers (audience response system)
• Moodle's Lesson tool for adaptive tutorials
• Questionmark Perception
• Turnitin support site

Black, P., Harrison, C., Lee, C., Marshall, B., & William, D. (2004). Working inside the black box: Assessment for learning in the classroom . The Phi Delta Kappan 86, 1.

Cohen, A., & Singh, D. (2020). Effective student feedback as a marker for student success . South African Journal of Higher Education, 34(5), 151-165.  https://dx.doi.org/10.20853/34-5-4259

Hattie, J. (1999). Influences on Student Learning . Inaugural lecture: Professor of Education. University of Auckland.

Hepplestone, A., Parkin, H., Irwin, B., Holden, G., Thorpe, L., & Burn, C. (2010). A student guide to using feedback . Learning and Teaching Institute, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK.

Moen, C., & Brown, J. (2017). Moving from patches to quilts: Developing self-aware, reflective leaders through curriculum innovation based on a Patchwork Text approach . Reflective Practice: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives 18 (6), 852-865.

Nicol, D. (2010). From monologue to dialogue: improving written feedback processes in mass higher education. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 35(5), 501–517.

• Teaching for learning
• Assessment Toolkit
• Digital Assessment at UNSW
• Designing Assessment
• Assessment Methods
• Using Assessment Rubrics
• Student Self-Assessment
• Reducing Plagiarism
• Reviewing Assessment Quality
• Spotlight on Assessment
• Assessment Development Framework
• Teaching Settings

30 Positive Feedback Examples: The Best Way to Give Positive Feedback to Colleagues

by Emre Ok March 31, 2023, 2:46 pm updated May 13, 2024, 8:08 pm 31.4k Views

There is a common misconception that positive feedback is worthless and one should only concern themselves with the negative feedback one receives. Well, the positive feedback examples we have in this list today would like to disagree with that statement.

While there is an argument to be made, about positive feedback examples can quickly turn into echo chambers that bring with them a dangerous sense of “Yes-Man-ism”, positive feedback examples are also one of the best employee recognition methods out there today!

So… “What are examples of positive feedback to staff?” you ask? We have the answer! The 30 positive feedback examples listed below are all designed to help you give your team the best possible positive feedback!

Whether you’re looking for some positive feedback examples for peers or your direct reports , we have something for you in this blog post. Let’s dive into the world of professional positive feedback examples!

Don’t Let Your Positive Feedback Go To Waste

How you deliver your feedback is just as important as the content of your feedback. One of the best ways to make sure your feedback counts is to set particular feedback standards through feedback templates .

It is even better if you have those templates fully integrated into your central communication and collaboration platform. For Microsoft Teams, this is where Teamflect comes in.

As the best free feedback software for Microsoft Teams, it lets users exchange feedback through customizable and comprehensive feedback templates that they can access even through Teams chat. You can try Teamflect’s feedback features for free, without needing to sign-up by clicking the button below!

Table of Contents

30 Positive Feedback Examples

1. exceptional work.

Acknowledging a colleague’s exceptional work can motivate them to continue to produce high-quality work and inspire others to strive for excellence as well. It shows that their efforts are valued and recognized, which can boost their morale and confidence.

“Your work on that project was exceptional! You went above and beyond what was expected of you, and your attention to detail really paid off. Your hard work made a real difference, and I’m grateful to have you on our team.”

2. Engaging Presentation

Presenting to an audience can be nerve-wracking, so when a colleague does an exceptional job, it’s important to acknowledge their effort. Giving some positive presentation feedback examples can help them feel more confident and motivate them to keep improving their presentation skills if you acknowledge their capacity to keep the audience interested.

“I just wanted to let you know that your presentation was amazing! You did a fantastic job of keeping the audience engaged, and your passion for the topic really shone through. You have a real talent for presenting, and I can’t wait to see what you come up with next.”

3. Professionalism in Difficult Situations

Handling difficult situations with grace and professionalism is a valuable skill that not everyone possesses. By praising a coworker for maintaining composure under pressure, you can let them know their efforts are seen and encourage others to follow in their footsteps.

“I’m so impressed by your ability to handle difficult situations with grace and professionalism. You really saved the day with that client, and your dedication to finding a solution was inspiring. Your calm and collected approach is something we can all learn from.”

4. Outstanding Work

Practicing employee praise when a colleague has produced excellent work can increase their drive and self-esteem, and it can encourage others to adopt their strategy. Simply put, if an employee is being praised and rewarded for a particular behavior, they are more likely to repeat it and outstanding work is something we all would want more of.

“Your work on this project has been outstanding! You’ve put in so much time and effort, and it really shows in the final product. Your creativity and expertise are invaluable to our team, and we’re lucky to have you.”

5. Helpful Colleague

It is a sad fact that toxic concepts such as hustle culture have created a sense of unhealthy competitiveness in many a workplace. A teammate that is willing to go out of their way to help others fosters an incredibly positive atmosphere in the workplace. One that requires you to give said employee kudos!

“I just wanted to say thank you for always being willing to lend a helping hand. Your generosity and kindness have not gone unnoticed, and your positive attitude is contagious. You make our workplace a better place to be.”

6. Creative Problem-Solver

When you take the time to recognize a colleague’s ability to come up with innovative solutions to problems, you not only make them feel appreciated and valued, but you also inspire them to keep honing their skills. This kind of acknowledgment is crucial for employee morale and productivity, as it demonstrates that their hard work and ingenuity are being recognized and rewarded.

“You have a real knack for problem-solving. Your ability to think outside the box and come up with creative solutions is impressive. You’ve saved us time and again with your ingenuity, and I’m grateful for your contributions to the team.”

7. Exceptional Leader

Fostering a culture of leadership and mentorship, we create a supportive environment where individuals feel empowered to take on new challenges and grow in their roles. Recognizing and celebrating leadership skills sends a message that leadership is valued and encouraged within the organization. This in turn leads to a more collaborative and innovative team dynamic, where individuals are motivated to share their ideas and work together towards greater success.

“Your leadership skills are truly exceptional. You have a way of motivating and inspiring others that is rare, and your commitment to our team’s success is evident in everything you do. We’re lucky to have you at the helm.”

8. Expertise

Giving credit where it’s due is a fundamental aspect of building a successful and thriving team. When we acknowledge our colleagues’ knowledge and experience, we not only boost their confidence and motivation but also inspire them to keep sharing their valuable insights and expertise with others.

“I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your expertise. Your knowledge and experience have been invaluable to me, and I’m grateful for your willingness to share your wisdom. You’re a real asset to our team.”

9. Positive Attitude

A colleague’s ability to maintain a positive attitude can motivate them to continue to inspire others and can encourage others to approach challenges with a positive outlook. As a result, the work environment can become more positive and supportive. When you praise someone for having a positive outlook on their workday, you give them further incentive to stay positive!

“Your positive attitude is infectious! You have a way of lifting everyone’s spirits and making even the toughest days a little brighter. Your enthusiasm for your work is inspiring, and I’m lucky to work alongside you.”

10. Clear Communication

If we are praising our teammates on their communication skills, we are also encouraging them to put those skills to work. We are also recognizing the importance of that specific skillset. Having a better understanding of communication skills in the workplace can reduce misunderstandings, performance review biases , and many other issues that may arise from a lack of communication.

“You have a real gift for communication. Your ability to explain complex ideas in a clear and concise way is impressive, and your attention to detail is second to none. You make our team stronger with your excellent communication skills.”

11. Dedication to Excellence

On the heels of a year where quiet quitting was the talk of the town in every single workplace across the world, having teammates that are dedicated to achieving excellence is truly rare. That is why a situation like this is a great opportunity to give positive feedback to colleagues.

“Your dedication to your work is truly inspiring. You always go the extra mile and never settle for anything less than excellence. Your hard work and determination are a real example to us all, and we’re lucky to have you on our team.”

12. Growth Mindset

We here at Teamflect value the growth mindset immensely. Why do you think that we have an employee development plan attached to every single one of our performance review templates ? Getting even more specific: These aren’t one-sided plans. They often include a self-review section as well. That is just how much we value the growth mindset your employees have. So should you!

“Your willingness to learn and grow is admirable. You’re always seeking out new challenges and pushing yourself to be better, and your growth mindset is infectious. You’re an inspiration to us all.”

13. Valuable Contributions

Everyone’s contributions to the team are important and should be recognized. No contribution is too small to be praised! Acknowledging a colleague’s valuable contributions can motivate them to continue to contribute to the team’s success and can inspire others to do the same.

“Your contributions to our team are immeasurable. You bring so much to the table with your expertise and creativity, and you always give 110%. Your hard work and dedication do not go unnoticed.”

14. Strong Work Ethic

The ability to work hard is a valuable trait to have in any workplace. Taking the time to recognize the dedication and commitment of a colleague can motivate them to continue working hard and can inspire others to adopt similar work ethics.

“Your work ethic is truly remarkable. You set the bar high for us all with your commitment and perseverance, and you’re a positive influence on the entire team. We’re lucky to have you as a colleague.”

15. Positive Influence

A positive work environment can increase productivity, improve job satisfaction, and enhance employee morale on the contrary of a toxic workplace . Therefore, acknowledging an ability to lift others up, create a positive atmosphere, and foster collaboration can have a significant impact on the team’s success.

“I just wanted to take a moment to appreciate your sense of humor. Your ability to find the funny side of things is a real gift, and your lighthearted approach makes our workplace a more enjoyable place to be. Thank you for keeping us all laughing!”

16. Great Time Management

Strong time management is a skill that we all need but don’t have. That’s why recognizing a colleague’s exceptional time management skills could motivate them further to stay organized, meet deadlines, and deliver high-quality work in a timely manner.

“I’m consistently impressed by your exceptional time management skills! You always deliver your work promptly, and your ability to juggle multiple tasks without compromising quality is remarkable. Your dedication to meeting deadlines is well-recognized and sets a great example for the rest of the team.”

17. Exceptional Initiative

Recognizing a colleague’s exceptional initiative might motivate them to keep taking ownership, being proactive, and looking for possibilities for progress. It’s crucial to show your employees that their capacity to take the initiative and drive projects forward is highly valued. 

“Your initiative is truly outstanding! The way you take charge, look for areas to improve, and proactively implement solutions is highly commendable. Your ability to think independently, take calculated risks, and seize opportunities has a significant positive impact on our team’s success.”

18. Customer Hero

Recognizing a colleague’s exceptional attention to customer needs can inspire them to continue providing excellent service tailored to individual customers. It shows that their ability to understand and address customer requirements is highly valued.

“I couldn’t help but notice your exceptional attention to customer needs! The way you listen actively, anticipate their requirements, and go above and beyond to meet their expectations is worth recognizing. We’re lucky to have you in our customer support team!”

19. Good Mentorship

Supporting new hires or current employees with mentorship or buddy programs is a great way to create a positive workplace culture. We recommend recognizing that one colleague’s excellent mentorship skills since it can inspire them to continue guiding and supporting others in their professional development.

“Your mentorship has been invaluable to me and countless others. I am constantly impressed by your ability to impart knowledge, provide insightful feedback, and inspire us to reach new heights. Thank you for being an exceptional mentor and for making a significant impact on our development.”

20. Adaptability to Change

In modern times, everything changes quickly, and adapting to rapid changes is a skill we all seek. Extraordinary adaptability to change should be acknowledged to inspire them to embrace new situations, modify techniques, and thrive in dynamic surroundings.

“I find your adaptability to change truly impressive! No matter how fast things evolve, you always manage to adapt seamlessly and remain focused on our goals. Your ability to embrace new challenges and find effective solutions in dynamic situations is greatly appreciated.”

21. Team Collaboration

Having an employee who excels in team collaboration is a real blessing in today’s landscape. That is why offering quality and positive feedback on team collaboration is a real must. Make sure you highlight each element of team collaboration they excelled at.

“Your ability to collaborate effectively with the team has significantly contributed to our project’s success. Your willingness to listen to others, share ideas, and work cooperatively is a great asset to our team. Thank you for your exemplary team spirit!”

22. Attention to Detail

In such a rapidly shifting climate, those with attention to detail truly rise to the top. When giving positive employee feedback on attention to detail, it is important to highlight specific instances where their attention to detail made a difference.

“I’ve noticed your exceptional attention to detail in your work. Your thoroughness ensures high quality and minimizes errors, which is crucial for our team’s success. Your dedication to getting every detail right is highly appreciated.”

23. Innovative Thinking

While there are many useful employee skills and performance metrics out there, finding an innovative thinker is easier said than done. That is why if you should always offer positive feedback to those bringing innovative ideas to the workplace.

“Your innovative thinking has brought fresh perspectives and creative solutions to our challenges. Your ability to think outside the box is inspiring and has had a positive impact on our team’s approach to problem-solving.”

24. Consistent Reliability

When an employee performs well, it is a great thing. When an employee performs well consistently, that is something else. Consistency is an asset that can often go unnoticed by employees. Offering positive feedback to those who are consistently reliable will make them realize their hard work doesn’t go unnoticed.

“You have proven to be incredibly reliable. Your consistent performance and ability to meet deadlines under pressure are qualities that don’t go unnoticed. Thank you for being someone we can always count on.”

25. Effective Communication Skills

Great communicators make or break a team. When you offer positive feedback on an employee’s communication skills, you encourage them to actively use those skills more and more in the workplace, building a culture of empowerment.

“Your communication skills, both in writing and speaking, are commendable. You express your ideas clearly and effectively, which greatly enhances our team’s understanding and collaboration.”

26. Enthusiasm and Energy

There are a lot of people who come to work, clock-in, and clock-out. Those who come to work with a smile on their face and boost everyone’s energies, deserve regular and positive feedback.

“Your enthusiasm and energy are contagious! You bring a positive vibe to the workplace that boosts our team’s morale and productivity. Your passion for your work is truly inspiring.”

27. Resilience in Challenges

Adversity isn’t an unfamiliar concept in the workplace, especially in the volatile landscape of today. That is why you should give positive employee feedback to the anchors in your team who are holding strong through tough times.

“Your resilience in the face of challenges is admirable. You’ve shown great strength and a positive attitude during difficult times, which encourages and motivates the entire team.”

28. Consistent Improvement

It’s the journey and not the destination! Even if an employee’s performance isn’t where you would hope it would be right now, if they are consistently improving, it deserves some praise. Here is a positive feedback example on just that topic:

“It’s impressive to see your continual growth and improvement. Your commitment to personal and professional development is inspiring and sets a great example for the rest of the team.”

29. Strategic Planning Skills

The analytical minds on your team, every once in a while, might feel a bit left out. That is why you should offer positive feedback to those with great strategic planning skills. This particular positive feedback example will help you do just that!

“Your strategic planning skills have greatly contributed to our team’s success. Your ability to foresee potential obstacles and plan accordingly has been invaluable in achieving our goals.”

30. Cultural Competency

Sometimes an example of positive feedback at work doesn’t necessarily have to be about performance. It can also focus on whether an employee is a great cultural fit or not. The feedback example below is for that exact purpose!

“Your cultural competency and ability to work effectively with diverse teams is highly commendable. Your respect for different perspectives and backgrounds enhances our team’s creativity and collaboration.”

Tips for Giving Positive Feedback

When it comes to giving positive feedback for colleagues, there are some general tips we can give to help you provide effective and meaningful recognition. Our tips will ensure that your feedback is well-received and encourages further growth and development.

A. Be specific and detailed in your feedback

When offering positive feedback, it’s important to be specific about what the person did well. Instead of simply saying, “Good job,” provide detailed examples and describe the specific actions or behaviors that impressed you. Giving specificity to your feedback helps your colleague understand exactly what they did right and encourages them to continue those positive actions.

B. Provide feedback in a timely manner

Timeliness is key when giving positive feedback. Aim to recognize and acknowledge the person’s accomplishments as soon as possible after they occur. Giving immediate feedback reinforces the positive behavior or achievement and shows that you value their efforts. Delayed feedback may lose its impact and fail to motivate the individual effectively.

C. Use positive language and tone

The language and tone you use while giving positive feedback greatly influence how it is received. Ensure that your words convey genuine appreciation and positivity. Choose uplifting and encouraging phrases that make the person feel valued and respected. Avoid mixing positive feedback with negative criticism, as it can dilute the impact of your appreciation.

D. Tailor your feedback to the individual’s strengths and accomplishments

Recognize and highlight the specific strengths and accomplishments of the individual. Everyone has different talents and areas of expertise, so tailor your feedback to align with their unique qualities. Acknowledging their strengths helps boost their confidence and encourages them to further excel in those areas.

How to give positive feedback to colleagues?

Giving positive feedback for colleagues is an important aspect of building a positive and productive work environment. To do this effectively, it’s important to be specific about what you appreciate and why.

For example, you might say something like, “I really appreciate the way you handled that difficult client. You remained calm and professional throughout the conversation, and I think that helped to de-escalate the situation.” It’s also important to be genuine in your praise, so avoid giving generic compliments that don’t feel meaningful.

Try and make sure to deliver your feedback in a timely manner, as close to the event as possible, to ensure that it has the greatest impact.

Giving feedback in Microsoft Teams , however, is another story!

Using Employee Feedback Software

Speaking of giving feedback inside Microsoft Teams , you might ask the question “What about remote feedback?”. Whether you’re working remotely or not making use of employee feedback software is always a great idea.

Using feedback software allows you to make use of helpful feedback templates, keep feedback in the flow of work, make existing feedback trackable, and let you revisit past feedback in performance reviews .

We highlighted some of the top feedback software in a previous list before but if your organization uses Microsoft Teams on a daily basis, then the best option for you is…

Teamflect is an all-in-one performance management solution with one of the strongest employee feedback modules inside the Microsoft Teams ecosystem. With features such as 360-degree feedback, customizable employee feedback templates , and complete Microsoft Teams integration , Teamflect provides its users with a comprehensive feedback experience.

Teamflect provides a wide selection of pre-built templates in its feedback template gallery where you can choose anything from leadership skills feedback to employee developmental feedback . Teamflect’s feedback templates makes giving feedback to colleagues a breeze, and you can create custom feedback forms without a hassle!

Teamflect functions as so much more than just a platform to exchange positive feedback over. Looking for OKR software with some incredible goal-setting features? Teamflect has you covered! If you want to throw a dash of employee engagement survey into that mix,

Teamflect has your back there too. With a wide array of features neatly wrapped up in an easy-to-use dashboard, Teamflect is the best performance management solution available to Microsoft Teams users today!

How to use feedback software inside Microsoft Teams?

Now that we’ve discussed the use of feedback software as a best practice when it comes to building a positive feedback culture in your organization, we can’t not show you how exactly to use one.

In order to exchange feedback inside Microsoft Teams, we will be taking advantage of the best 360-degree feedback software for Microsoft Teams: Teamflect.

Step 1: Access the Teamflect Feedback module

Teamflect users can in fact access feedback templates without having to leave Teams chat but we do recommend you visit the feedback module itself, since it acts as a hub for all your feedback needs such as self-reviews, 360-degree feedback, and more!

Once you click the “New Feedback” button, you can start exchanging feedback inside Microsoft Teams right away. You don’t have to be the one giving the feedback. You can also request feedback for yourself or on behalf of someone else.

Step 2: Select a feedback template

Teamflect has an extensive library of customizable feedback templates. These ad-hoc feedback templates can be used straight out of the box and still work wonders in your team. That being said, you still have the option to create templates of your own, or customize existing templates with different question types such as Likert scale, rating questions, multiple choice, open-ended, and more!

Once you’ve chosen your template, you can start giving feedback right then and there!

Optional Step: 360-Degree Feedback

Many might consider 360-degree feedback to be a difficult practice to implement since it requires input from many different parties. Teamflect makes the entire process incredibly convenient.

With Teamflect, you can request feedback on behalf of yourself or others from direct reports, superiors, peers, or external parties. True 360-degree feedback covers all bases. That is why we made sure to include feedback from those outside of your organization such as customers, or independent contractors.

Optional Step: Summarize feedback with AI

For the sake of convenience, Teamflect users have the option to summarize the feedback they received throughout any given time-frame.

While every singe input is surely priceless, sometimes a summary can truly help speed things along. Simply click the “Summarize with AI” button to get all the key points from all the feedback you received.

What are the benefits of giving positive feedback at work?

Giving positive feedback can be a real game-changer in the workplace! Not only can it boost morale and motivation, but it can also help to create a supportive and positive work environment.

When someone receives positive feedback, they feel valued and appreciated, which can increase their engagement and commitment to their job. Plus, it’s always nice to know that your hard work is being recognized by your peers. Remember, peer recognition is magic!

Positive feedback doesn’t just boost morale and motivation! It also reinforces the positive behavior you praise. It is quite simply common sense, really. When you praise someone for a job well done, they’re more likely to continue doing the same things in the future. This leads to a more productive and efficient workplace, as well as happier and more fulfilled employees.

When to give positive feedback?

Positive feedback can be given at any time, but it’s most effective when it’s given as close to the event as possible. To make sure you give positive feedback at the best possible time, here is a small list of situations you should give positive feedback for:

When a colleague has completed a challenging project or task When a team member has gone above and beyond to help the team meet a deadline After a coworker has demonstrated exceptional teamwork or collaboration skills When an employee has achieved a significant milestone or accomplished a major goal When a team member has consistently shown improvement in their work or has overcome a personal or professional challenge.

How to give positive feedback examples?

Giving positive feedback is an important skill in both personal and professional settings. It helps motivate and encourage others, builds strong relationships, and fosters a positive environment.

Express appreciation: Let the person know that you value their contribution and effort.

Example: “I want to express my appreciation for your hard work on the project. Your dedication, attention to detail, and creativity really made a difference. The project turned out to be a great success, and you played a significant role in that.”

Focus on strengths: Highlight the person’s strengths and how they have positively impacted the situation or task.

Example: “Your problem-solving skills have been outstanding. Every time we face a challenge, you come up with innovative solutions that not only solve the problem but also improve our overall processes. Your ability to think outside the box is truly impressive.”

Connect to impact: Explain the positive impact of the person’s actions on the team, organization, or project.

Example: “Your leadership during the team project was invaluable. Your ability to delegate tasks effectively and provide guidance and support to team members greatly contributed to our success. Your leadership style fostered a collaborative environment where everyone felt motivated and empowered to do their best.”

Encourage personal growth: Highlight growth or improvement in someone’s skills or abilities.

Example: “I’ve noticed a significant improvement in your presentation skills over the past few months. Your confidence, delivery, and ability to engage the audience have all improved tremendously. Keep up the great work!”

Be genuine and sincere: Make sure your feedback comes from a place of authenticity and sincerity.

Example: “I genuinely appreciate your positive attitude and enthusiasm. Your energy is contagious, and it really boosts the team’s morale. Your positive outlook has created a supportive and enjoyable work environment.”

What to avoid when giving positive feedback to your colleagues?

While it may seem counterintuitive to consider potential issues when giving positive feedback, there are still important nuances to consider. While it may seem like positive feedback can’t do any harm, you just might be surprised at some of the nuances that go into good feedback comments. Here are some positive feedback issues you have to avoid!

Issue 1: Generic Praise

One common mistake when giving positive feedback is being too vague or generic. Generic compliments like “Great job!” or “You’re awesome!” lack specificity and may not carry the weight of genuine appreciation.

Be specific in your praise. Highlight the particular actions, behaviors, or achievements that impressed you. For example, instead of saying “Great presentation,” you could say, “I was impressed by how well you articulated the key points during the presentation, and your use of visuals made it engaging and informative.”

Issue 2: Overdoing It

While frequent positive feedback is encouraged, overdoing it can dilute its impact. If you praise every little thing, it may come across as insincere.

Reserve your positive feedback for truly outstanding or noteworthy accomplishments. This way, when you do offer praise, it will be seen as genuine and meaningful.

Issue 3: Public vs. Private Feedback

Publicly acknowledging your colleagues’ achievements can boost their morale, but not everyone is comfortable with public recognition.

Gauge your colleague’s preferences and comfort level with public praise. Some may appreciate it, while others may prefer private acknowledgment. Respect their preferences to ensure your feedback is well-received.

Issue 4: Exaggeration

Exaggerating your praise can make it seem insincere and overblown. Colleagues may question the authenticity of your compliments if they feel inflated.

Stick to genuine, honest, and good feedback. Express your admiration without resorting to hyperbole. If you genuinely believe your colleague did an exceptional job, your sincerity will shine through.

Ignoring the Details

Positive feedback examples are most effective when they are specific and meaningful. Failing to mention the details of what impressed you can make your praise seem superficial.

Pay attention to the specific actions, skills, or qualities that earned your colleague recognition. Highlight these details in your feedback to demonstrate that you’ve truly observed and appreciated their efforts.

In Conclusion

We want to end this post with a bit of a disclaimer. There isn’t a single example of positive feedback that has to be followed to a tee. While we wanted to provide you with as many professional positive feedback examples as we could, at the end of the day, the way you give positive feedback should change depending on who you are talking to, your organization’s culture, and a billion other things.

If you’ve come to this blog post with the question “What are some examples of positive feedback for colleagues?”, we do hope that you’re leaving satisfied and that we’ve also provided you with more than just good feedback examples but also some insight on how to give feedback as well!

Whether you are coming up with ideas for creative feedback for colleagues or simply looking to whip up some positive feedback for your coworkers, we hope you have the best of times!

Related Posts:

Written by emre ok.

Emre is a content writer at Teamflect who aims to share fun and unique insight into the world of performance management.

20 Great Constructive Feedback Examples For Your Manager

The Importance of Feedback in the Workplace – Best Practices 2023

Giving good online feedback

How this will help:

When you teach a face-to-face course, many instructors develop some kind of relationship with the class as well as individual learners. You may come to associate names with faces, and in turn, writing styles, personality, strengths, and challenging areas. As you assess and evaluate learners, you most likely provide feedback to students in a variety of ways – from formative feedback to feedback on larger assessments.

Feedback in an online course is frequently cited as being perceived by students as being important even than in a face-to-face course. In a face-to-face course, informal or observational interactions between student and faculty help build community. In an online course, sometimes the only perceived interaction a student may have with an instructor is through feedback. Being vigilant with feedback best practices, particularly in the first few weeks of a class helps establish community and presence in the classroom.  While you might have to adjust the modality that you use for feedback in an online course compared to a face-to-face course, the good news is that the overall guidance around feedback is exactly the same. 

General guidelines for effective feedback

• Timely: Learners need feedback as quickly as possible in order to continue moving forward with their learning.  Some programs may have specific requirements for assignment feedback turnaround. If not, consider setting expectations for students for feedback particularly on anything graded. Even knowing that they should receive feedback within 3-5 days can alleviate student anxiety (and help prevent panicked emails) 
• Frequent : Feedback is crucial for learning, and without receiving feedback at regular intervals, learners may struggle to know whether they are on the right track. How frequent that feedback should be may depend on your particular course, but in an online course, some kind of weekly feedback is a good starting point.
• Specific: Learners won’t be able to get a clear sense of what actions to take with generic feedback such as “good job” or “this needs work.” Instead, specific feedback gives clear guidance on what to do or not do.
• Balanced: Learners need to know about both their errors and successes. When you point out to learners what they have done well, you reinforce those behaviors, help learners feel competent, and also show them how to be critically reflective. For all of us, in any domain, there are things we are doing well and things we can improve.

How  you say things matters too

You probably already know emails and texts are easy to misinterpret. Sadly, so is giving critical feedback to students online — particularly in discussions and on essays. Words can seem harsher when students don’t have a facial expression or tone of voice to give them context. Your intent may be misunderstood if students don’t know you well. However, You can be kind without sacrificing rigor.

Here are some ideas to help you make sure your feedback is taken the right way:

• For grading papers, rubrics will help you give more objective feedback to students, which feels fairer to them and less uncomfortable for you. 
• In discussions, using rubrics will help you set clear expectations for student participation and give you the guideposts you need to give them feedback if they don’t meet those expectations. They don’t have to be very detailed, it’s about setting the expectation.
• If you aren’t comfortable with writing in a less formal tone, lean more heavily into using rubrics. Or, try giving audio feedback rather than written feedback.   
• Make it about the assignment, not the person. Every now and then, check in with yourself about whether your feelings about a student change the way you communicate with them. Ask yourself “How would I say this to my best students?” Craft feedback that shows a) you have high expectations for the student, but also  b) mistakes are ok (they can learn from them), and c) they can succeed and you’ll help them get there. (This is probably how you communicate with your best students.)
• Remember the “feedback sandwich.” You have probably heard about the structure of – one positive, one critique, and end on a positive. We know it’s exhausting to find positive “bread” for the feedback sandwich for dozens or hundreds of assignments. We also know that telling students what they’ve done well empowers them and reinforces their efforts. It may also make them more open to critical feedback in the middle of the sandwich.
• Be careful with your language. Make sure your words don’t blame or shame. Avoid inflammatory language. Frame your questions and comments in a way that shows you’re supportive and want to help your students improve — rather than making them feel like they’re doing a bad job or aren’t good enough. If you’re not sure, find a colleague who can give you feedback. This takes some vulnerability on your part, but if you’re reading this guide, you’re already motivated to do this well.

Practical tips

• Try to set guidelines for yourself about when feedback is due. For example, if student discussion posts are due on Thursday, try to have your feedback by Sunday evening. If priorities shift, that’s okay – just communicate it to students. Time management is key.
• When providing feedback on individual assignments, it can be quicker to record audio feedback rather than typing up your comments. This also helps students hear your tone better, which reduces the chance that your feedback will be misinterpreted. There are a number of apps that do this, such as VoiceThread. This article describes the methods and benefits of giving audio feedback . You can even attach audio comments to Canvas grades.
• For assignments, curate a document with common or easily re-used positive comments. You will be amazed at how much time you can save by not having to re-type the same sentence. 
• Some instructors want to meet one-on-one with students to deliver feedback, such as on major assignments like papers. These can be scheduled online via videoconferencing in Canvas .
• Incorporate peer review to spread the labor of feedback around. Learners also benefit from seeing and critiquing each others’ work. 

Other Resources

Canvas – Leaving voice feedback for assignments  

Forbes –  Giving SMART feedback to millennials  

Chronicle of Higher Education – How to give your students better feedback with technology

Inside Higher Ed –  How to provide meaningful feedback online  

Contributors: Center for Research on Learning & Teaching and Academic Innovation

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16 constructive feedback examples — and tips for how to use them

Giving constructive feedback is nerve-wracking for many people. But feedback is also necessary for thriving in the workplace. 

It helps people flex and grow into new skills, capabilities, and roles. It creates more positive and productive relationships between employees. And it helps to reach goals and drive business value.

But feedback is a two-way street. More often than not, it’s likely every employee will have to give constructive feedback in their careers. That’s why it’s helpful to have constructive feedback examples to leverage for the right situation. 

We know employees want feedback. But one study found that people want feedback if they’re on the receiving end . In fact, in every case, participants rated their desire for feedback higher as the receiver. While the fear of feedback is very real, it’s important to not shy away from constructive feedback opportunities. After all, it could be the difference between a flailing and thriving team. 

If you’re trying to overcome your fear of providing feedback, we’ve compiled a list of 16 constructive feedback examples for you to use. We’ll also share some best practices on how to give effective feedback . 

What is constructive feedback? 

When you hear the word feedback, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? What feelings do you have associated with feedback? Oftentimes, feedback conversations are anxiety-ridden because it’s assumed to be negative feedback. Unfortunately, feedback has this binary stigma, it’s either good or bad.

But in reality, there are plenty of types of feedback leveraged in both personal and professional relationships. They don’t all fall into one camp or the other. And each type of feedback is serving a purpose to ultimately better an individual, team, or work environment. 

For example, positive feedback can be used to reinforce desired behaviors or big accomplishments. Real-time feedback is reserved for those “in the moment” situations. Like if I’ve made a mistake or a typo in a blog, I’d want my teammates to give me real-time feedback . 

However, constructive feedback is its own ball game. 

What is constructive feedback?

Constructive feedback is a supportive way to improve areas of opportunity for an individual person, team, relationship, or environment. In many ways, constructive feedback is a combination of constructive criticism paired with coaching skills. 

16 constructive feedback examples to use 

To truly invest in building a feedback culture , your employees need to feel comfortable giving feedback. After all, organizations are people, which means we’re all human. We make mistakes but we’re all capable of growth and development. And most importantly, everyone everywhere should be able to live with more purpose, clarity, and passion. 

But we won’t unlock everyone’s full potential unless your people are comfortable giving feedback. Some employee feedback might be easier to give than others, like ways to improve a presentation. 

But sometimes, constructive feedback can be tricky, like managing conflict between team members or addressing negative behavior. As any leader will tell you, it’s critical to address negative behaviors and redirect them to positive outcomes. Letting toxic behavior go unchecked can lead to issues with employee engagement , company culture, and overall, your business’s bottom line. 

Regardless of where on the feedback spectrum your organization falls, having concrete examples will help set up your people for success. Let’s talk through some examples of constructive feedback. For any of these themes, it’s always good to have specific examples handy to help reinforce the feedback you’re giving. We’ll also give some sample scenarios of when these phrases might be most impactful and appropriate. 

Constructive feedback examples about communication skills  

An employee speaks over others and interrupts in team meetings.

“I’ve noticed you can cut off team members or interrupt others. You share plenty of good ideas and do good work. To share some communication feedback , I’d love to see how you can support others in voicing their own ideas in our team meetings.” 

An employee who doesn’t speak up or share ideas in team meetings.

“I’ve noticed that you don’t often share ideas in big meetings. But in our one-on-one meetings , you come up with plenty of meaningful and creative ideas to help solve problems. What can I do to help make you more comfortable speaking up in front of the team?” 

An employee who is brutally honest and blunt.

“Last week, I noticed you told a teammate that their work wasn’t useful to you. It might be true that their work isn’t contributing to your work, but there’s other work being spread across the team that will help us reach our organizational goals. I’d love to work with you on ways to improve your communication skills to help build your feedback skills, too. Would you be interested in pursuing some professional development opportunities?”  

An employee who has trouble building rapport because of poor communication skills in customer and prospect meetings.

“I’ve noticed you dive right into the presentation with our customer and prospect meetings. To build a relationship and rapport, it’s good to make sure we’re getting to know everyone as people. Why don’t you try learning more about their work, priorities, and life outside of the office in our next meeting?” 

Constructive feedback examples about collaboration 

An employee who doesn’t hold to their commitments on group or team projects.

“I noticed I asked you for a deliverable on this key project by the end of last week. I still haven’t received this deliverable and wanted to follow up. If a deadline doesn’t work well with your bandwidth, would you be able to check in with me? I’d love to get a good idea of what you can commit to without overloading your workload.”  

An employee who likes to gatekeep or protect their work, which hurts productivity and teamwork .

“Our teams have been working together on this cross-functional project for a couple of months. But yesterday, we learned that your team came across a roadblock last month that hasn’t been resolved. I’d love to be a partner to you if you hit any issues in reaching our goals. Would you be willing to share your project plan or help provide some more visibility into your team’s work? I think it would help us with problem-solving and preventing problems down the line.” 

An employee who dominates a cross-functional project and doesn’t often accept new ways of doing things.

“I’ve noticed that two team members have voiced ideas that you have shut down. In the spirit of giving honest feedback, it feels like ideas or new solutions to problems aren’t welcome. Is there a way we could explore some of these ideas? I think it would help to show that we’re team players and want to encourage everyone’s contributions to this project.” 

Constructive feedback examples about time management 

An employee who is always late to morning meetings or one-on-ones.

“I’ve noticed that you’re often late to our morning meetings with the rest of the team. Sometimes, you’re late to our one-on-ones, too. Is there a way I can help you with building better time management skills ? Sometimes, the tardiness can come off like you don’t care about the meeting or the person you’re meeting with, which I know you don’t mean.” 

A direct report who struggles to meet deadlines.

“Thanks for letting me know you’re running behind schedule and need an extension. I’ve noticed this is the third time you’ve asked for an extension in the past two weeks. In our next one-on-one, can you come up with a list of projects and the amount of time that you’re spending on each project? I wonder if we can see how you’re managing your time and identify efficiencies.” 

An employee who continuously misses team meetings.

“I’ve noticed you haven’t been present at the last few team meetings. I wanted to check in to see how things are going. What do you have on your plate right now? I’m concerned you’re missing critical information that can help you in your role and your career.” 

Constructive feedback examples about boundaries 

A manager who expects the entire team to work on weekends.

“I’ve noticed you send us emails and project plans over the weekends. I put in a lot of hard work during the week, and won’t be able to answer your emails until the work week starts again. It’s important that I maintain my work-life balance to be able to perform my best.” 

An employee who delegates work to other team members.

“I’ve noticed you’ve delegated some aspects of this project that fall into your scope of work. I have a full plate with my responsibilities in XYZ right now. But if you need assistance, it might be worth bringing up your workload to our manager.” 

A direct report who is stressed about employee performance but is at risk of burning out.

“I know we have performance reviews coming up and I’ve noticed an increase in working hours for you. I hope you know that I recognize your work ethic but it’s important that you prioritize your work-life balance, too. We don’t want you to burn out.”  

Constructive feedback examples about managing 

A leader who is struggling with team members working together well in group settings.

“I’ve noticed your team’s scores on our employee engagement surveys. It seems like they don’t collaborate well or work well in group settings, given their feedback. Let’s work on building some leadership skills to help build trust within your team.” 

A leader who is struggling to engage their remote team.

“In my last skip-levels with your team, I heard some feedback about the lack of connections . It sounds like some of your team members feel isolated, especially in this remote environment. Let’s work on ways we can put some virtual team-building activities together.” 

A leader who is micromanaging , damaging employee morale.

“In the last employee engagement pulse survey, I took a look at the leadership feedback. It sounds like some of your employees feel that you micromanage them, which can damage trust and employee engagement. In our next one-on-one, let’s talk through some projects that you can step back from and delegate to one of your direct reports. We want to make sure employees on your team feel ownership and autonomy over their work.” 

8 tips for providing constructive feedback 

Asking for and receiving feedback isn’t an easy task. 

But as we know, more people would prefer to receive feedback than give it. If giving constructive feedback feels daunting, we’ve rounded up eight tips to help ease your nerves. These best practices can help make sure you’re nailing your feedback delivery for optimal results, too.

Be clear and direct (without being brutally honest). Make sure you’re clear, concise, and direct. Dancing around the topic isn’t helpful for you or the person you’re giving feedback to. 

Provide specific examples. Get really specific and cite recent examples. If you’re vague and high-level, the employee might not connect feedback with their actions.

Set goals for the behavior you’d like to see changed. If there’s a behavior that’s consistent, try setting a goal with your employee. For example, let’s say a team member dominates the conversation in team meetings. Could you set a goal for how many times they encourage other team members to speak and share their ideas? 

Give time and space for clarifying questions. Constructive feedback can be hard to hear. It can also take some time to process. Make sure you give the person the time and space for questions and follow-up. 

Know when to give feedback in person versus written communication. Some constructive feedback simply shouldn’t be put in an email or a Slack message. Know the right communication forum to deliver your feedback.   

Check-in. Make an intentional effort to check in with the person on how they’re doing in the respective area of feedback. For example, let’s say you’ve given a teammate feedback on their presentation skills . Follow up on how they’ve invested in building their public speaking skills . Ask if you can help them practice before a big meeting or presentation. 

Ask for feedback in return. Feedback can feel hierarchical and top-down sometimes. Make sure that you open the door to gather feedback in return from your employees. 

Start giving effective constructive feedback 

Meaningful feedback can be the difference between a flailing and thriving team. To create a feedback culture in your organization, constructive feedback is a necessary ingredient. 

Think about the role of coaching to help build feedback muscles with your employees. With access to virtual coaching , you can make sure your employees are set up for success. BetterUp can help your workforce reach its full potential.

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Madeline Miles

Madeline is a writer, communicator, and storyteller who is passionate about using words to help drive positive change. She holds a bachelor's in English Creative Writing and Communication Studies and lives in Denver, Colorado. In her spare time, she's usually somewhere outside (preferably in the mountains) — and enjoys poetry and fiction.

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Constructive feedback

Ivan Andreev

Demand Generation & Capture Strategist, Valamis

December 19, 2021 · updated April 3, 2024

14 minute read

December 19, 2021

The aim of this article is to provide you with a clear idea of what constructive feedback is and how it fits into the workplace.

Constructive feedback is a useful tool that managers and employees can engage in to improve the standard of work. There is a right way to give good constructive feedback which you will learn by the end of this page.

What is constructive feedback?

30 constructive feedback examples, how to give constructive feedback, 10 tips to help your feedback make a positive impact.

By engaging your employees with constructive feedback you create an atmosphere that nurtures support and growth.

Proper feedback has a knock-on effect on loyalty, work ethic , performance, and growth for individuals and teams.

Feedback can be given in multiple ways so take a look at our guide “ types of feedback .” You can learn how to take negative feedback and turn it into engaging positive feedforward.

Employees respond better to constructive and positive feedback rather than negative feedback which can make them feel unappreciated and under-supported.

Constructive feedback is the type of feedback aimed at achieving a positive outcome by providing someone with comments, advice, or suggestions that are useful for their work or their future.

The outcome can be faster processes, improving behaviors, identifying weaknesses, or providing new perspectives.

The feedback can be given in different forms; both praise and criticism can play a role in constructive feedback.

Criticism can also be delivered constructively – constructive criticism . Check out our article to learn more about it.

Good constructive feedback should focus on the work rather than being a personal negative attack against an individual.

Let’s take a look at how praise and criticism work:

Praise is where you show appreciation to your employees for the work they have done.

If an employee has done exemplary work or gone above and beyond to help someone, a thank you and congratulations can go a long way.

By acknowledging their work and showing your appreciation you can help to reinforce these positive behaviors.

Additionally, you can use praise as part of a larger feedback session. By highlighting the things an employee does well your message carries extra weight.

Your employees feel appreciated and any advice shared as part of the feedback will feel positive.

Criticism is harder to navigate as if it is handled poorly it can lead to an uncomfortable working environment .

When critiquing an employee’s work it is imperative to try and make it not personal.

Criticism plays an important role in helping people avoid negative behaviors and grow from their mistakes.

Proper criticism should be sincere and caring whilst also containing a level of importance.

Do not let your emotions get the better of you as criticism levied while you are angry, disappointed, or frustrated may lose its message.

The outcome of criticism should still be positive and contribute to an employee’s growth.

Career development plan template

This template helps employees and leaders plan together for career growth: set goals, assess skills, and make a plan.

Let’s take a look at some good constructive feedback examples.

Each topic is divided into three sections, one which displays appropriate positive feedback (praise), appropriate negative feedback (criticism) and inappropriate negative feedback.

Appropriate types are designed to encourage a positive outcome in the future.

1. Feedback about communication skills

Appropriate positive example.

“Thank you for keeping me informed of the progress on the project for XYZ. It’s allowed me to keep my superiors up-to-date with our department. Everyone is excited to see the project enter the final phase. I’m impressed by your dedication to the team and I look forward to seeing more from you!”

Appropriate negative example

“You haven’t been keeping me well-informed about your project. I don’t know what’s going on and I’d like to see more communication from you. Can we arrange to have a 10-minute call every Friday with progress updates please?”

Inappropriate negative example

“Did no one teach you how to communicate? The team needs to know what’s going on. This is completely unprofessional.”

2. Feedback about work ethic

“I am so impressed with the effort you gave this project. Your commitment to the client and our department is admirable. We were able to sign off on the project ahead of schedule all thanks to you!”

“Thank you for all the hard work you put into this project. Unfortunately, the deadline was missed but I can see the solid effort you gave us. In the future please come to me earlier if you feel a deadline is going to be missed, we can pull in support to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

“You missed this deadline which has affected our relationship with the client. This reflects poorly on you and the company.”

3. Feedback about leadership

“Seeing you step up and take control of a team has demonstrated your brilliant talent and people skills. Keep it up and you’ll be making a name for yourself here.”

“I’ve noticed that you’re not forthcoming when there are opportunities to lead a project. I appreciate all the work you do and I’d love to see you take on a challenge please let me know if there is anything I can to get you there.”

“If you’re not going to take these opportunities then why are you even here?”

4. Feedback about flexibility

“Thank you for staying late recently, the work has really piled up and we’re really lucky to have a dedicated person like you on the team to help us reach the deadlines.”

“The deadlines are fast approaching and I’ve noticed you haven’t picked up any extra hours to help out. I would like to see a little more flexibility from you to help us get the project done before the deadlines.”

“You can’t just leave when there is work to be done. Your colleagues are staying behind to help so why aren’t you? You need to be doing your bit.”

5. Feedback about creativity

“You are very innovative with the way you work. The creative solutions you have shared with the team are invaluable and will save the company time and money in the future.”

“I’ve noticed that you’ve been getting stuck on tasks recently. Don’t be afraid to get creative with ideas to help you get the world done.”

“There are rules set out for a reason and you should be following them. You aren’t paid to think, you’re paid to work so keep your ideas to yourself.”

6. Feedback about attention to details

“You have such a keen eye for detail. Thanks to your ability to spot errors and resolve them quickly I have been able to free up another member of the team for a new project.”

“I’ve noticed a pattern starting to emerge with your work recently, small errors are slipping through. I know that sometimes this happens so I just wanted to bring it to your attention so we can avoid them in the future. I’ve created a short checklist to go over before you submit your next few projects.”

“You need to start paying more attention to your work. You can’t keep submitting work that falls below the standards we expect of you.”

7. Feedback about punctuality

“I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for always being here on time. It’s really beneficial to have you hear for these early meetings.”

“I’ve noticed that you’ve been coming into the office late this week. The morning meetings are vitally important and I’d like to see you at more of them. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to support you and get you through the doors a little earlier.”

“Your tardiness is unacceptable and it makes everyone look bad. Show up on time or we will have to take disciplinary action.”

8. Feedback about productivity

“I just wanted to let you know that your hard work has not gone unnoticed. Thank you for the extra effort you have been putting in recently. You are a testament to the department and this company.”

“It’s been noted that your productivity has suffered in recent weeks. I’d like to see you back up to your previous levels and if there is anything the company can do to help please let me know. We’ll schedule a meeting a week from now to check on your progress.”

“You’re not working hard enough anymore. You need to get back up to speed with everyone else as soon as possible.”

9. Feedback about attitude and rudeness

“Thank you for being such a positive spirit around the office. Your ability to lighten the mood and keep things upbeat even against tight deadlines has such a positive effect on your colleagues. The environment would not be the same without you!”

“We’ve noticed that your attitude in the office has turned quite negative recently. This sort of thing multiples quite quickly in an office and starts to affect everyone. If there is something that I can do to help please let me know. It’s a shame to see you like this and I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say we’re here to help”

“Your poor attitude is making everyone feel uncomfortable. You are toxic, unmotivated, and you act like you don’t want to be here.”

10. Feedback on problem-solving

“Excellent work on the project. That was a really tricky one but you were able to dig deep and figure it out. I appreciate that you were able to figure out the problems on your own without pulling other team members in to help. We’re so busy at the moment it’s hard to spare the manpower. Thank you!’

“You’re an incredibly resourceful and intuitive person so next time I’d like to see you work on the issues a little longer before asking for help. Tony has fallen behind in his work now. I’m confident if you’d thought about it a little longer you would have cracked. Do you think you would have got there?”

“Stop giving up on tasks and making someone else do it. Other people are busy and can’t just stop what they are doing to do your tasks for you. If you’re stuck on something – figure it out!”

When you decide it’s time to arrange a feedback session, or you have a performance appraisal , with an employee there are a few things to consider to really get this right.

A well-thought-out feedback session can have everyone walking away feeling positive and like they have achieved something.

1. Choose the right time and place for feedback

The first thing you want to consider is the location. Small bits of praise and appreciation can be shared among the wider team. On the other hand, criticism that is shared in front of your employee’s peers will be shameful and embarrassing.

Criticism is much better delivered in a one-to-one meeting.

You should consider the timing of the meeting. It is best to give feedback as soon as possible while the reference points are still clear.

Feedback is less constructive the longer you wait to arrange the meeting. As long as you feel like you can provide constructive feedback, then the sooner the better.

2. Set the right tone for the meeting

The next thing to consider is the manner in which you give the feedback.

If you want to arrange a meeting to provide negative feedback try not to do this while tensions are running high. If you feel yourself being too angry and unable to censor yourself properly it may be best to wait until you can have the conversation in a more neutral tone.

At the same time the tone should be professional and you should sound confident.

For positive constructive feedback try to use an inspiring and friendly tone rather than casual and funny as it might decrease the effectiveness of your message.

3. Emotional intelligence is key

Further to the previous point emotions can run high during feedback sessions, particularly where criticism is concerned. Anger can cause you to attack the recipient unfairly and this could have consequences. It won’t make you or the recipient feel better and could bleed into the work environment.

Consider the other person as well, how is the feedback going to affect them? How can you present the information in a way that’s helpful to them?

4. Define what is the purpose of the feedback

When you arrange a meeting with your employee the purpose of that meeting should be clearly defined. You should also share why you feel this is an important meeting to have.

As an example if the purpose of the feedback is to improve employee behaviour or performance, then you should have a clear understanding of what you need to discuss and what solutions you can offer.

If you are unclear of the specifics it will be harder to provide constructive feedback.

5. Content of the feedback

You should be able to clearly identify the areas of discussion. Whether it is praising something positive or criticism about areas of improvement. The content should be focused on the work rather than the individual.

If there is a specific action or situation that needs to be addressed then you can share how exactly it is making you and their colleagues feel.

6. Don’t skirt around the issue

It may not be appropriate to slide your feedback in between more positive conversations. It could lead to your message being diluted or misunderstood. Sometimes will be advantageous for a boss to get straight to the point.

7. Encourage a dialogue

Employees should be given the opportunity to add to the dialogue, this should not be a one-way conversation. Once you have given the purpose, observations, details of situations, and reactions then offer the employee a chance to speak.

This is so important as it allows you to hear about the event in question from a new perspective.

8. Be respectful and stay on point

Since you’re dealing with another person you’ve got to remain respectful during the meeting. Keep on point and avoid using language that would cause the recipient to go defensive.

It would be better to lead with phrases like ‘I’m worried about,’ ‘I’ve observed behaviors’ and ‘I’ve become aware of’ rather than phrases that start with ‘you such as ‘you’re doing things wrong.’

Keep to the point and don’t make the meeting too personal.

9. Give suggestions for improvements

The most important part of the feedback should be working with the employee about improvements. You can share what you would like to see in the future such as improvements to working speed, accuracy, relationships with colleagues, or whatever the situation is.

It may be worth creating an action plan and arranging more meetings in the future to check on performance.

This part of the feedback should be to support the employee in the areas they aren’t performing in and focus on reaching a positive outcome.

10. Recap the most important points

Before you end the meeting it is a good idea to just recap everything you have spoken about. This is a good way to avoid there being any misunderstandings and it provides you with an opportunity to check that the constructive feedback was received and understood.

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30+ Positive Feedback Examples Your Employees Need to Hear

Published: September 12, 2023

Years ago, I worked at an office where the only time I ever heard from my manager was if I fell short of expectations. Without positive feedback, I felt like all of my wins went unnoticed and that they didn’t matter nearly as much as my losses. This caused me to lose motivation and my productivity began to suffer. It also pushed me to leave the company and seek better opportunities elsewhere.

While it’s important to let employees know where there are areas that need improvement, it’s equally important to give positive feedback so they know where they shine. Giving positive feedback boosts morale, instills confidence, and motivates employees to do their best. It also helps you retain great people who will move your business forward.

A survey by the Society of Human Resource Management found that 80% of HR leaders work at organizations that have an employee recognition program .

Of those leaders, 89% reported their recognition program helped improve the overall employee experience. 86% said it improved employee relationships and 84% said it improved employee engagement.

There are many ways to give positive feedback, but first you must understand what it is.

What is positive feedback?

Positive feedback is the act of recognizing and praising someone for their accomplishments, strengths, and talents. Positive feedback tells an employee what they’re doing right and what they should continue to do.

“ If you focus on what someone shouldn't do without also touching on the things they should do or keep doing, you're only providing half of an instruction,” says HubSpot’s Historical Optimization Team Manager Amanda Sellers . “Good constructive feedback paired with positive feedback, on the other hand, is a balanced way to paint a whole picture, resulting in more effective outcomes.”

In the workplace, positive feedback from leadership can come in many forms, such as congratulating someone on hitting an important milestone. It can also be in the form of highlighting an employee’s important contribution in a team assignment.

“My approach is that any time I get or have positive feedback about someone I work with, whether I’m their manager or peer, I pass it on,” says our Director of English Growth Aja Frost. “This is such a great way to help others understand how they’re perceived and recognize them for their work. I aim to be as specific as possible.”

How to Give Positive Feedback

Though every employee is different, it generally helps to do the following when giving positive feedback:

• Link the positive behavior to business results. For example, explaining that an employee’s understanding of social media algorithms has increased the company’s engagement across platforms.
• Reward them for their hard work with something you know they’d appreciate, such as a digital e-gift card from Rybbon or a gift from Reachdesk .
• Deliver the feedback as soon as possible after noticing the employee’s achievements or strength.
• Whenever possible or appropriate, deliver positive feedback in front of others.
• Be specific and detailed in your feedback. Include the who, what, where, and why of the matter, so the recipient can apply the feedback to future projects.

It’s also important to check in and ask about their preferences. In one of the earliest conversations I had with my manager at HubSpot, I was asked how I prefer to communicate and receive feedback. Did I prefer email, video call, virtual chat, or some other way? This has helped us communicate effectively and I definitely suggest asking your employees the same question early on.

Positive Feedback Examples

Of course not everyone knows the right thing to say in every situation, but don’t worry! Here are some examples of positive feedback that you can give in different scenarios to encourage your employees’ success.

• When an Employee is Being a Team Player
• When an Employee Needs a Boost in Confidence
• When an Employee Hits a New Milestone
• When an Employee Completes a Difficult Assignment
• When an Employee Handles Conflict in a Professional Manner
• When an Employee Helps a Coworker
• When an Employee Takes on Additional Tasks Outside Their Role
• When an Employee Exceeds Expectations
• When an Employee Takes on More Responsibilities
• When an Employee has Submitted Outstanding Work

“I appreciate your commitment to keeping everyone on your team focused and up-to-date with their tasks. Thanks to your efforts, the project was completed on time and impressed our clients. Thank you so much for your hard work. That kind of team player mentality is an asset our company values highly.”

2. When an Employee Needs a Boost in Confidence:

“Hey John! You’ve been doing an excellent job lately. Since starting here, you have shown so much growth. The quality of your work improved and your ability to multitask has helped our projects run smoothly. Thank you for your hard work, and don’t hesitate to reach out if there’s anything I can help you with.”

3. When an Employee Hits a New Milestone:

“Congratulations to Sarah on leading her first social media campaign. To watch her grow from an assistant to the bold leader she is now has been an honor. I can’t wait to see more of her amazing ideas going forward.”

4. When an Employee Completes a Difficult Assignment:

“Thank you so much for completing this task. I understand it was more complicated than we initially thought and required more time. Your positive attitude through it all and your attention to detail is much appreciated. While this was your first time completing such a task, we knew you were the right person to take it on.”

5. When an Employee Handles Conflict in a Professional Manner:

“Thank you for resolving the issue with a disgruntled client today. It’s not easy to navigate conflict with an unhappy client, but you handled it with such grace. Conflict resolution is an important part of the job and you clearly demonstrated your skills in that area.”

6. When an Employee Helps a Coworker:

“I just want to thank Jeffery for training our new hire, Jessica, and helping her acclimate to both her new role and the company. Jeffery has made himself available for all of her questions and has provided excellent guidance. All this has made Jessica’s transition into the company seamless.”

7. When an Employee Takes on Additional Tasks Outside Their Role:

“I just want to give a shout out to Michael for taking it upon himself to assume some of the responsibilities of the assistant manager while we look for someone to fill the role. His proactiveness has helped us immensely, and because of that we’ve been able to dedicate time to finding a successful candidate for the role without falling behind on our initiatives.”

8. When an Employee Exceeds Expectations:

“I just want to congratulate Laura for finishing strong this quarter soaring past her goal. We initially wanted to increase our following on social media by 15%, but thanks to her hard work we increased by 30%.”

9. When an Employee Takes on More Responsibilities:

“Promoting you to director of sales has proven to be a great decision given how well you adapted to your new responsibilities. Your flexibility as you take on new tasks has really pushed the department forward. We can’t wait to see how you continue to grow in this new position.”

10. When an Employee has Submitted Outstanding Work:

“Excellent job on this report, Adrian! It’s clear you’ve taken our notes into consideration and have paid close attention to detail. The way you’ve organized your finding makes this report easy to break down with the rest of our team. Thank you for your hard work!”

11. When an Employee is Proactive:

"Thank you for getting that agenda together ahead of our meeting. Your planning skills allowed us to easily track all of this project's moving parts and focus our efforts. Thank you for being proactive and saving us time."

12. When an Employee Collaborates Well:

"I really appreciate your outreach to stakeholders to get feedback on this initiative. Their insights and feedback have been incredibly helpful. Thank you for anticipating our need to reach out."

13. When an Employee Exhibits Company Values:

"No matter what you work on, you've always done it with excellence and with our core values at the forefront. Thank you for always bringing your support and kindness to all company initiatives."

14. When an Employee Adapts Well to Change:

"Our organization has undergone so many changes this past month and I realize this has been hard on the team. Thank you for making things easier with your positive attitude and flexibility. It's made this transition more pleasant for the rest of us."

15. When an Employee Delights Customers:

"We just received a review from one of our clients you assisted last week. They were so pleased and said you went above and beyond to resolve their issue. Thank you for not only making our team proud but being an ambassador for the brand."

16. When an Employee Contributes to Meetings:

"Your input in today's meeting was super insightful and well researched. Thank you for contributing and your ideas will make this project better. Can't wait to hear more from you. Keep up the good work!"  

17. When an Employee Shows Proficiency in Skills:

"I'm so impressed with your development over these last few weeks. Your willingness to learn and master new skills is remarkable."

18. When an Employee Exhibits Leadership Skills:

"Thank you for spearheading this new project. Your leadership and attention to detail made all the difference executing this new initiative."

19. When an Employee Demonstrates Growth: 

"I've noticed you've taken on a variety of challenging projects lately and it's been great to see you step outside your comfort zone. We've seen a significant improvement in your skills and performance. Keep up the good work."

20. When an Employee Shows Innovation:

"Thank you for consistently coming up with new ways to solve problems. Your knack for innovation hasn't gone unnoticed and we really appreciate your efforts to improve processes for everyone."

21. When an Employee Finds Creative Solutions:

"I am really impressed with your ability to think outside the box and take risks to come up with solutions for the team. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to support your efforts."

22. When an Employee Takes Constructive Criticism:

"I know it wasn't easy having to rewrite that proposal, but the new one you submitted today shows you listened to our feedback and made adjustments. I'm impressed you managed to take those points and implement them so quickly. I really appreciate it."

23. When an Employee Shows Enthusiasm for the Role:

"Thank you for being so energetic and eager to excel in your role and solve for the customer. Your energy is contagious and motivates others to do the same. "

24: When a New Employee Learns the Ropes:

"I know you're just getting settled into your role, but I just wanted to tell you that everyone speaks highly of you and your positive attitude. Please let me know if you have any questions and keep up the good work." 

25: When an Employee Knows When to Ask for Help:

"I'm really glad you came to me for assistance with this project. I know it's not easy. I'm happy to help with anything you need to ensure we continue to meet our set deadlines. Thank you for being proactive."

26. When an Employee Steps Outside Their Comfort Zone: 

"Thank you so much for pitching your ideas in today's meeting. I know it can be intimidating at first but the more you do it, the more comfortable you'll get. We really appreciate you stepping outside your comfort zone to help us accomplish our goals."

27. When an Employee Gets a Promotion:

"Congratulations on your new position! You've always been a key asset to our team and we are so fortunate to see you take on new responsibilities. This promotion is much deserved."

28. When an Employee Brings Fresh Ideas:

"Thank you for sharing your ideas in today's planning meeting. Implementing those suggestions will make this project roll out go so much smoother. Thank you for taking the time to come up with solutions prior to this meeting."

29. When an Employee Motivates Others:

"I'm really impressed with your ability to motivate others and be a team player. Everyone really appreciates how you made time to allow everyone to share their ideas. Thank you for being an excellent collaborator. "

31. When an Employee Learns from Previous Mistakes

"Thank you so much for making a pivot with this project after our discussion. I know it's not easy to change a project you worked hard on. With the changes made it's sure to be a success."

32. When an Employee is Burnt Out or Overwhelmed:

"I've noticed you're burnt out and running on fumes. Your contributions are greatly appreciated and your hard work hasn't gone unnoticed. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to support you and if you'd like to arrange some much needed time off. "

33. When an Employee Gets Praise from Others:

"Thank you for all of your efforts getting this project off the ground. Everyone speaks highly of you and your team told me you are incredibly knowledgeable and a pleasure to work with. We're grateful to have you on board."

34. When an Employee Demonstrates Focus:

"I really appreciate you taking charge of this initiative and sticking with it —despite the research phase taking longer than expected. That extra step is paying off and now key stakeholders are on board. Thank you."

35. When an Employee is Calm Under Pressure:

"You've done an incredible job fixing this bug on such short notice. I know this client has been demanding and a handful. Thank you for getting their issue resolved quickly and calmly."

Timely Feedback is Key

Everyone has their own preference when it comes to receiving feedback. However, always remember to be timely, detailed, and sincere when giving positive feedback to your employees. By doing so, you’ll foster a workplace culture that promotes growth, high morale, and employee retention.

Editor's note: This article was originally published in May 2019 and has been updated for Comprehensiveness. 

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14 effective feedback techniques and methods for giving better feedback

Effective feedback is a gift. When we use feedback techniques to share how we feel, what changes we'd like to see and give appreciation or constructive criticism, we create opportunities for growth and change. But for too many teams, feedback is a loaded word that can create a fear of judgement and negativity.

Use proven techniques for giving and receiving feedback to help your team feel heard, show appreciation and be honest about what needs to change. These methods below are great for holding a productive feedback session while also building the skills necessary for a continuous feedback culture. Let's dive in!

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Techniques for group feedback

Finding space to give constructive feedback on a specific project or general group performance is an effective way to explore opportunities for improvement and make changes as a team.

While these techniques can also be used when giving personal feedback, they are most effective when looking at both individual and team performance in a group context. That is, having more public discussions that might come as part of a general reflection or retrospective. Bring them to your workshop or meetings to help small groups give each other feedback or reflect on a project.

It’s worth noting that some these feedback methods may not be suitable for delivering feedback that is sensitive in nature. If you’re looking for more formal feedback techniques you might use in a 1-1 employee feedback scenario, take a look at personal feedback techniques in the next section.

Start, Stop, Continue

Giving feedback can be daunting if teams haven’t yet developed the vocabulary or skillset. Frameworks that make it easy to give both constructive feedback are great ways to start encouraging regular feedback and build those muscles.

In Start, Stop, Continue, participants are given a short statement they must complete for each other member of their group or team. “Something I would like you to START doing is… Something I would like you to STOP doing is… Something I would like you to CONTINUE doing is… Signed _____.”

By using this three-step structure, everyone can give feedback to everyone else in a direct and simple manner. Think of it as a feedback sandwich that is loaded with opportunities for action and which doesn’t compromise the idea that feedback is a gift!

Feedback: Start, Stop, Continue   #hyperisland   #skills   #feedback   #remote-friendly   Regular, effective feedback is one of the most important ingredients in building constructive relationships and thriving teams. Openness creates trust and trust creates more openness. Feedback exercises aim to support groups to build trust and openness and for individuals to gain self-awareness and insight. Feedback exercises should always be conducted with thoughtfulness and high awareness of group dynamics. This is an exercise for groups or teams that have worked together for some time and are familiar with giving and receiving feedback. It uses the words “stop”, “start” and “continue” to guide the feedback messages.

Encouraging everyone to give informal feedback when closing a project is a great way to create closure and positivity. Bus Trip is an activity that can help you end a session on a positive note and create space for appreciation and positive feedback within a group.

Start by setting out chairs into rows like the seating on a bus. Inform participants that they’ll be powering the bus with positive energy and then get everyone seated. Ask people on one row of the bus to give as much positive feedback to the person in the other row as they can in 45 seconds. Swap roles and then mix up seating so that everyone gets to give feedback to everyone in the group.

This feedback method is wonderful to end a session in a positive manner. By using peer-to-peer employee feedback, it can also help build feedback skills and connections that will continue after the activity is complete.

Bus Trip   #feedback   #communication   #appreciation   #closing   #thiagi   #team   This is one of my favourite feedback games. I use Bus Trip at the end of a training session or a meeting, and I use it all the time. The game creates a massive amount of energy with lots of smiles, laughs, and sometimes even a teardrop or two.

Providing feedback should be a gift, though teams often get caught up in ideas of their being scary negative feedback that is meant to punish, and positive feedback, which is lovely, but potentially less useful. Starfish is an effective feedback method that is great for reframing a feedback session not solely as punishment or praise, but as an opportunity for growth.

With a five point star, participants are encouraged to write what they want the subject of feedback to keep doing, do more of, do less of, start doing, stop doing. It’s particularly effective when giving feedback on an event or situation, but it can equally be used when discussing team performance. It’s great for generating actions as a result of feedback, rather than just saying, this was good, or this was bad.

The visual element of the star is helpful for both creating a sense of equivalence between feedback items, but also for generating scattergrams that help capture group sentiment.

Starfish   #retrospective   #feedback   #visual methods   #review   The Starfish can be used wherever you want to get an overview over how people perceive the status quo. It can be used as a gather data exercise in retrospectives or as feedback tool after events.

Thirty five for debriefing

Getting feedback from a large number of people at once can be an effective way to gain insights quickly, but without the right framework, it can easily become choatic or unproductive.

In this feedback method, group members are encouraged to reflect on past events or give feedback on a chosen topic and write down a lesson they learned on a flash card.

After writing their feedback, participants are then invited to wander the room and exchange cards multiple times before then getting into pairs. Pairs then distribute 7 points between the two cards they have based on the merit of the ideas or lesson. Repeat a few rounds before then finding out which cards got the most points and share them with the group.

Debrief by discussing the feedback process and top comments with the group. You’ll find that this method is not only effective for getting lots of feedback quickly, but also for building the essential skill of interpreting and reacting to feedback in a positive manner.

Thirty-five for Debriefing   #debriefing   #closing   #thiagi   #action   #skills   You might be familiar with Thirty-Five as a structured-sharing activity. Thirty-Five can also be used as an effective debriefing game. In this version, participants reflect on an earlier experience and identify important lessons they learned. They write one of these lessons as a brief item. The winner in this activity is not the best player, but the best lesson learned.

One Breath Feedback

One common pitfall of interpersonal feedback is lack of focus and clarity. One person may give carefully delivered feedback in a direct and clear way, while another may feel quite hurt and bring up instances of past behaviour, be defensive or otherwise go off on a tangent. Creating space for these feelings is important, but it’s often not the focus of a feedback session, especially in group settings.

One breath feedback is an effective technique for giving effective feedback very quickly and giving everyone in the group an opportunity to suggest ideas and share their opinion. The idea is simple: everyone has the space of one full breath in which to give their feedback on a particular topic or theme. It’s great for encouraging succinct feedback, especially as people only have time and space to mention the most important things on their mind.

One breath feedback   #closing   #feedback   #action   This is a feedback round in just one breath that excels in maintaining attention: each participants is able to speak during just one breath … for most people that’s around 20 to 25 seconds … unless of course you’ve been a deep sea diver in which case you’ll be able to do it for longer.

AIR Feedback model

Pretty much all of the feedback methods above can be used in a personal setting, though these techniques also shine when using them in small groups where you might be trying to encourage our team to get into a habit of giving more feedback.

The AIR feedback model (action, impact, request) is a simple framework for constructive criticism and feedback. The emphasis is on making a SMART request so that the person receiving feedback can meaningfully act on what is a reasonable and well considered request. Because groups are also instructed to uphold principles such as being non-judgemental and asking people if they would like to receive feedback, AIR is an especially effective tool for teaching feedback skills.

AIR Feedback Model   #hyperisland   #feedback   #team   Constructive feedback is feedback regarding an individual’s performance that can be used to build (construct) connection, successful habits and behaviors. The constructive (building) component is key because with this mindset and approach, seemingly negative feedback doesn’t become discouraging. Rather, a launch pad for creating opportunities for learning and development.

Techniques for personal feedback

In most cases, personal feedback will be given in a 1-1 scenario between two people. This might be formal or informal, but the key is that both the person giving and receiving feedback feel best positioned to have that conversation without feeling judged or shamed.

Giving negative feedback in front of an entire team is likely to do more harm than good, and some issues are more sensitive in nature. Use these feedback techniques to host an effective conversation that will help both parties engage with feedback in a more closed setting.

As with any of these techniques, developing strong facilitation skills can help you run these methods more effectively. The other big ingredient for successful feedback is practice, so try giving and receiving with your team at the next opportunity.

Feedback Wrap

One common feedback technique that’s come under some scrutiny of late is the feedback sandwich. With that technique, the idea was to sandwich one piece of constructive or negative feedback between two pieces of positive feedback. One problem with this method is how it frames feedback under these two binaries and how it conflicts with the idea that feedback is a gift and an opportunity.

A feedback wrap is a more advanced method of providing feedback that provides enough context to move things forward without things turning into a blame game. Here’s how it works.

1. Start by providing some context of the situation to help the other person understand where you’re coming from. 2. List specific observations and further information about the situation. 3. Let the other person know how this makes you feel. 4. Explain what your needs are and why they are important to you. 5. Give space for the other person to figure out a solution but also feel free to make suggestions if you have them.

Team of Two

Our interpersonal relationships are important in every aspect of our lives. In the workplace, it’s not uncommon for issues or grievances to go unchecked and unresolved. But there’s a better way!

Team of Two is one of my favorite employee feedback techniques because it encourages both people in a working relationship to think about how they could help and be helped by the other.

Start by having two people who work together a lot write down they ways they might help the other person and the ways in which the other person might help them. Next, both people share and respond to the requests one by one, taking the opportunity to provide more detail or further context. The end result is a series of agreements for how both people will work together in the future.

Team of Two   #communication   #active listening   #issue analysis   #conflict resolution   #issue resolution   #remote-friendly   #team   Much of the business of an organisation takes place between pairs of people. These interactions can be positive and developing or frustrating and destructive. You can improve them using simple methods, providing people are willing to listen to each other. “Team of two” will work between secretaries and managers, managers and directors, consultants and clients or engineers working on a job together. It will even work between life partners.

Feed forward

In some scenarios, it can be more impactful to look to the future rather than looking to the past. If you’ve ever felt the struggle between wanting to draw a line under something but still have needs which are being unmet, feed forward can be an effective feedback technique to try.

The idea of the feed forward method is to focus only on ideas for the future and get agreement and alignment on what you might do to make those things happen. The ideas suggested during a feed forward are based on areas for improvement, just the same as when giving feedback, but by focusing on what could go right, rather than what went wrong, it can sometimes be easier to see positive behaviour change.

Feed forward   #feedback   #remote-friendly   #team   #leadership   #skills   An engaging variation on a feedback activity that focuses on future changes and positive action, rather than dwelling on what went wrong.

GROW coaching model

At its best, a feedback culture facilitates personal reflection and development. This coaching method isn’t a direct method for soliciting feedback like the above, but it does create space for feedback and reflection to happen.

In essence, this method asks coachees to give themselves feedback on their progress and then work with their mentor to figure out next steps. It’s a different approach, but a skilled leader or coach can use this framework to bring up feedback as and when it’s asked for and is appropriate. As part of an ongoing personal development process, it’s incredibly effective and organic.

The GROW Coaching Model   #hyperisland   #coaching   #growth   #goal setting   The GROW Model is a coaching framework used in conversations, meetings, and everyday leadership to unlock potential and possibilities. It’s a simple & effective framework for structuring your coaching & mentoring sessions and great coaching conversations. Easy to use for both face-to-face and online meetings. GROW is an acronym that stands for Goal, Reality, Obstacles/Options, and Will.

Feedback techniques for improving feedback culture

A culture of consistent feedback is a habit of a high performing team. When individuals are given the skills and opportunities to give and receive feedback that can help them grow, the results can be transformative. But without the right framework or setting, it’s possible for negative feedback or unhelpful criticism to become order of the day.

These feedback methods are designed to help give teams the skillset and context for delivering feedback more regularly and effectively. If you want to improve employee feedback and create a culture that cherishes and provides consistent feedback, these methods are for you!

Principles of Effective Feedback

Creating a shared understanding of how and when your team wants to give, receive and explore feedback is vital for creating a healthy feedback culture. This method creates a space for groups to discuss, define, and agree on what good feedback looks like to them and how they would like to receive it.

Start by asking participants to share examples of when they’ve received helpful feedback and then extrapolate some underlying principles they’ll use as the basis for a feedback agreement on the team. End by asking for how the group will make this happen and ensure they use these principles. Not only will you have clear guidelines for how to give and receive feedback in your organization, but you’ll have people eager to start the process too!

Principles of Effective Feedback   #hyperisland   #skills   #feedback   The purpose of this exercise is for a group to discuss, define, and come to agreement around key principles of effective feedback. Participants discuss examples of effective and ineffective feedback in pairs, then work together to define “effective feedback.” Then, as a group, they create a list of principles that they will aim to work by.

Quick reviews in 1 minute

Not all feedback sessions need to take a lot of time. When trying to encourage employee feedback, it can be helpful to start small and give very easy opportunities for everyone to share what they think.

In this method, you’ll find various strategies for enabling a group to give feedback in just 1 minute. Whether it’s encouraging everyone to share three words for how they’re feeling, give a temperature level for how they’re feeling or share positive suggestions, bringing these ideas into your regular sessions can have a cumulative effect on your feedback culture.

Quick Reviews in 1 minute   #reflection   #closing   #remote-friendly   #online   Easy and fun way to review content or atmosphere at the end of a group activity (or in between) in 1 minute.

Meeting closing round

Continuous improvement is the ultimate goal of a productive feedback culture. But does your team use every possible opportunity to review team performance and how they employees work together? Meeting closing round is a wonderfully simply and effective feedback technique you can use at the end of every meeting, workshop or other collaborative session.

At the end of your meeting, ask three simple questions: what went well, what could have gone differently and any other ideas? You’ll often find suggestions for improvement you can action immediately, alongside things you might try in order to improve performance moving forward. Use this method consistently and your employees will start building these feedback skills and considering other places where things could be better too!

Meeting closing round (+ – !)   #feedback   #closing activity   #remote-friendly   #hybrid-friendly   #meeting facilitation   Continuously improve your organization’s meetings with this simple round of closing feedback: what did you enjoy most? What could have been better? Any other ideas on our meetings?

Feedback Map

In especially large teams, it can be hard for people to understand who, when and how they should provide feedback. Aligning on these items is an essential part of creating a culture of feedback, and this method helps you do just that.

Begin by scattering the names of everyone in a group or project on a whiteboard. Next, agree on a timeframe and then invite participants to draw lines connecting one another based on how they’ve worked with. Have employees circle three interactions they’d like to address with feedback and then choose an appropriate feedback method (Start, Stop, Continue or AIR are two great options.) for people to give feedback to those people.

Feedback Map   #hyperisland   #skills   #feedback   This is a feedback exercise to support participants to deliver feedback that is clear and specific, especially after working in multiple project teams over a longer period of time. The team maps the connections between individuals, then uses specific points of interaction to prompt feedback.

In conclusion

Giving and receiving feedback is hard. You can’t expect people to navigate potentially sensitive or emotionally activating situations without a little help. We hope that these feedback techniques gives you and your team some meaningful ways to give and receive feedback and also improve your feedback culture in general.

Want to run a feedback workshop with your team to build those constructive feedback skills? Check out out effective feedback workshop template for an example session you can run when seeking to build a culture of consistent feedback.

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