Feedback and Coaching: Growing People Without Bruising Them

By the end

What you'll build

• Distinguish observation, interpretation and impact in any piece of feedback, and state each one separately
• Deliver a piece of critical feedback in under two minutes using a four-part spoken structure
• Write praise that is specific enough that it could not be copy-pasted to another person
• Choose deliberately between feedback, evaluation and coaching before opening your mouth
• Run a coaching conversation using a four-stage question arc from goal to commitment without giving advice
• Hold a deliberate silence of at least ten seconds after asking a question
• Receive hard feedback without defending, by buying time and asking for the specific example
• Decide what to do with feedback you believe is factually wrong, without either swallowing it or dismissing it
• Ask for feedback in a way that produces a concrete answer rather than "all good"
• Repair a piece of feedback that landed badly, and design one routine feedback habit for a team

Curriculum

What's inside

7 modules · 48 lessons

1. 01

   Why Feedback Fails

   7 lessons
   • Start Here: What This Course Is and Is Not
   • Feedback as Verdict: Why It Lands Wrong
   • Feedback, Evaluation and Coaching Are Three Different Conversations
   • Check: Which Conversation Is This?quiz
   • The Evidence: Feedback Does Not Always Help
   • + 2 more lessons
2. 02

   Saying It: Observation, Interpretation, Impact

   7 lessons
   • Splitting Observation from Interpretation
   • Spot the Interpretationfill blank
   • Naming Impact Without Making It a Charge
   • A Four-Part Structure You Can Say Out Loud
   • Build the Feedback Sentencesentence builder
   • + 2 more lessons
3. 03

   Specificity, Timing and Praise Done Properly

   6 lessons
   • How Specific Is Specific Enough
   • Timing: Sooner, Later and Never
   • Praise Is Harder Than Criticism
   • Words for Precise Praiseword power
   • Check: Praise, Timing and Specificityquiz
   • + 1 more lesson
4. 04

   Receiving Feedback, and Asking For It

   8 lessons
   • The First Ten Seconds: What Your Body Does
   • Buying Time and Asking for the Example
   • The Clumsy Messenger
   • Feedback You Think Is Wrong
   • Asking for Feedback So You Get an Actual Answer
   • + 3 more lessons
5. 05

   Coaching: Asking Instead of Telling

   7 lessons
   • Coaching Is a Different Contract
   • A Four-Stage Question Arc
   • Listening at Depth, and Silence as a Tool
   • Premature Advice, and the Problem You Could Solve Faster
   • A Coaching Question Bankword power
   • + 2 more lessons
6. 06

   Hard Places: Power Gaps, Writing, Groups and Repair

   7 lessons
   • Feedback Upward and Sideways
   • Written and Asynchronous Feedback
   • Reviewing Work: Code, Documents and Designs
   • Feedback in a Group, and in a Retrospective
   • Repairing Feedback That Landed Badly
   • + 2 more lessons
7. 07

   Capstone: Two Real Conversations and a Charter

   6 lessons
   • How the Capstone Works
   • Script Your Feedback Conversationspeech template
   • Rehearse It, Then Deliver Itspeaking lab
   • Plan Your Coaching Conversationspeech template
   • Reflection: What Actually Happenedwriting lab
   • + 1 more lesson

The shape of it

How this course works