The normal way to talk about feedback is to think about, what has happened in the past. And we tend to focus on what went wrong depending on the culture that you’re in. So, it’s okay to look at what went wrong, but it’s more important to put an emphasis on what you can do right next time.
So yes, you can touch on the past, but it’s really important to put the emphasis on the future. And actually, I use this as a little bit of a trick to get people to use the past tense and the future tense when they’re working with me so it doesn’t feel like grammar that way. You can do critiques of previous work, that’s fine but what you also need to add is, you know, suggestions or recommendations on what they could try
next time. And it might be something about their delivery, it might be their vocabulary, it might have been graphics, it might have been, you know, the numbers might not have added up – whatever it is: If you can tell them what they can do better and what they can try without being too domineering, you’re investing in their future, you’re investing in their career, and they feel that you are taking them under your wing and helping them to be successful.
You can describe what’s happened or what your observations were, you know,
“I’ve got the impression you were nervous”,
“I didn’t really feel engaged in what you were telling us at the beginning of the story that you told”,
“I felt a little bit uncomfortable because you were talking about women all the time”,
whatever it is – that description of what you perceived, that’s one thing but the important thing is to give ideas on how to improve. And I’m talking about specific suggestions here.