How to Give and Receive Feedback in English

Hi, I'm Marie. Welcome to Oxford Online English In this lesson.
You can learn how to give and respond to feedback in the professional environment, You'll see different ways to give positive, or negative feedback and how to give negative feedback in a more direct.
Or indirect way, before we begin check out our website Oxford Online English.com, do you want to see a range of video and listening lessons to improve your English or 100% free? We have that.
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Let's start by looking at how to give positive feedback. Hi, you wanted to talk to me. I did I, yes, I remember it won't take long. Is there a problem?
No, not at all. Actually, I just wanted to tell you, I really like tell you handled the meaning touch. Oh, thanks. It was a challenging situation.
None of us thought they would come in with so many difficult, technical questions. And honestly, that guy, what was his name?
Brian. I thought he was being quite aggressive. I admired, the way you were able to keep your cool and stick to the point. Sure, I suppose.
It wasn't the easiest meeting, but it wasn't too stressful. I'm used to situations like that. Yes, but still not.
Everyone can stay calm and that position. Also, the visuals you prepared for our presentation were very impressive.
They look professional, but also communicated key information, clearly Glad you think.
So Anyway, I just wanted to let you know, keep up the good work.
We'll do in the dialogue.
You heard different ways to praise someone's work.
Look at some sentences. Can you remember the missing words?
If not, you can review the dialogue if you want.
Here are the answers. You can use these phrases in other ways. For example, I really liked how you explained everything.
So clearly I admire the way you never miss a deadline, even when we're under a lot of pressure, the way you dealt with that customers.
Complaint was very impressive.
What about you can you think of other ways to complete these sentences?
Think about your work recently have your colleagues done anything which impressed you use your own ideas to complete these sentences, pause the video and say your examples out loud.
Now, what about keep up the good work. This is a general phrase.
You can use it when you're pleased with someone's work and you want to encourage them next.
What if you need to give someone negative feedback? Can I have a word? Sure, what is it? Well, I had a chance to look through your draft proposal.
Oh, I'll cut to the chase. It needs a lot of work. This is a long complex document. It needs to be well organized.
Clearly laid out and make a good impression on whoever reads it. So, what needs changing? Honestly, I think you need to go back to the drawing board and think about how to organize your ideas.
Currently, it's hard to follow because it's incoherent. You jump from one topic to another which makes it difficult to focus on your main idea.
Also, you need to pay more attention to detail. I checked some of the data you quote and many of the figures are inaccurate.
I didn't check everything because that's your responsibility. Remember that their legal department will also be looking through this.
So it needs to be watertight, double check, any figures or other data you're using, and don't cut corners, okay? That's my fault.
I'll be more careful, finally, you need to tidy up the language. There are spelling mistakes, and grammatical sentences, missing punctuation, and so on,
I hope it's obvious that you can't make spelling mistakes in a piece of writing like this. It won't make a good impression. No, of course not. So.
Do you think you can deal with this and get a revised draft to me by the end of the week? Sure. I'll do that. When giving negative feedback, you can choose between being more direct or more indirect, this depends on many things.
The country you're in corporate culture, your relationship with the person you're talking to and more Here.
You saw some ways to give negative feedback directly Look at some phrases from the dialogue. Imagine someone asks you to explain what these phrases mean in English. How would you do it?
Post the video and think about how to explain the meaning of these phrases. I'll cut to the chase signals that you're about to say something negative in a direct way.
It's a way to introduce a criticism, go back to the drawing board needs to start something again.
You use this phrase when something is not going to plan and you need to start again from zero. If you cut corners, you rush your work or you don't pay enough attention to it.
If you tell someone don't cut corners, you were telling that person to work carefully and pay attention to detail. Generally, if you want to give feedback directly, you'll use simpler sentences with you.
For example, you need to pay more attention to detail.
You should double check your figures before you send it.
You can't go into a meeting like that unprepared direct language is generally simpler.
You can use you plus a verb, as an, you need to you should, you shouldn't you can't.
And so on.
Now, what about giving negative feedback into more indirect way? Do you have a minute? Sure what's up? There's a little issue.
I wanted to discuss with you. Actually, there have been some complaints about the language and humor, you use and meetings and in the office,
generally more than one person has complaints to me that they find it unprofessional and defensive really like what? I don't want to get into specific cases.
I just want to remind you that this is a workplace and there are certain standards of conduct that we all have to adhere to. So whoa no jokes allowed.
That's not what I'm saying. But it's important to understand that.
Not everyone will have the same perspective or sense of humor as you it's advisable to be cautious with your choice of words especially in meetings or other situations where perhaps not everyone knows each other.
This seems a little unfair given the you're not saying who made these complaints or what? I'm supposed to have said, well, this is just a friendly chat but I have also observed some examples of these issues directly.
I don't want to take this further, but I would like you to keep these is in mind. Hopefully, we can avoid similar issues in the future In this dialogue.
You saw how to give negative feedback in directly. Here's a question. What are some features of indirect language? How is indirect language different from the direct language.
You heard in part two. Indirect language is generally softer and more impersonal When giving negative feedback if you want to be indirect you'll generally avoid sentences with you Instead. You'll use impersonal constructions.
For example with there You heard there have been some complaints about the language and humor you use in meetings there are certain standards of conduct that we all have to adhere to or you might use impersonal constructions with it as in.
It's important to understand that.
Not everyone will have the same perspective or sense of humor as you it's advisable to be cautious with your choice of words. Take that last example.
How would you say this in more direct language?
You would say something like you need to be more cautious with your choice of words or you should be more cautious. Also, indirect language tends to be less specific In the dialogue. I avoided going into details about the problem.
I didn't say who had complained or described specific incidents, Think about the differences between direct and indirect language that you see in here, When you need to give someone negative feedback,
it's good to decide which approach to use and control your language accordingly. Yeah. Right. So about the new design for the logo. Yeah, I'm curious to hear your thoughts.
First of all, the colors look strange, then you think sure I'm aware of that. I made the prototypes on my laptop, while I was on the road and the screen isn't good. Enough for design work, I'll adjust the colors on my desktop.
I know how I want it to look. Okay, that sounds good. Now I like the basic design with the overlapping circles I do think the text should be larger. All right, I can look into that.
Sometimes it's hard to balance the proportion when you start changing things but I'll see what I can do then. I think the thing I like least is these triangles on the right? Overall it looks too busy.
There are too many shapes and different parts. Well there I have to disagree with you. Our logo now has triangles inside a circle. This new logo takes the same elements but presents them in a new way. It's different.
But there's also some continuity with the current logo which I think is important. Hmm. I mean I can try to come up with some more ideas but I don't think this particular logo makes sense.
If you take the triangles out plus it look unbalanced look. I like it overall but I don't want to rush this decision and I think you could improve on this design with a bit more time.
How about you come up with one or two more versions? And then we'll decide as a team, okay?
That's sounds fair.
I'll see what I can do.
When someone is giving you feedback, you can respond in different ways, you can acknowledge their points or agree with it. You can promise to take action or you can disagree. Look at five phrases. You heard in the dialogue.
Can you remember the missing words, pause the video if you need more time to think?
Let's see.
The answers together to acknowledge or agree with the point, someone makes you can say, I'm aware of that or that's sounds fair. You could also use phrases. Like, I understand.
I get it or I take your point To promise to take action when someone gives you feedback.
You could say I can look into that or I'll see what I can do. You could also say I'll work on that or I'll get on it right away, get on. It means to start working on something.
It's a more informal phrase to disagree with someone.
You could say I have to disagree with you. If you want to be more indirect, you could say I'm not sure I agree.
Or I have a different perspective on that if you want to be more direct, say something like I don't think that's true or I don't agree with that. Now, you should know different ways to give and respond to feedback, You can review parts of the video.
Again, if you need to, Thanks for watching, See you next time.