Bullshit Feedback

In every annual performance review cycle, managers read dozens of peer feedback comments for their reports. Positive feedback is often effusive and glowing, but growth feedback is just as often nonexistent or unhelpful. The same is true for some managers, who don’t give their reports the direct and insightful feedback that will help them truly grow.

Bullshit feedback is seemingly constructive feedback that provides no actual value for someone’s growth. It comes in a few forms:

• Empty feedback means giving no constructive feedback whatsoever, such as, “N/A” or “They should keep doing what they’re doing!” This obviously provides no value to the report. If it’s coming from a peer, it probably means that person shouldn’t have been asked for feedback, because they haven’t worked with the report long enough, have a short memory, or don’t care enough to spend more time.
• Shallow feedback means giving vague directional feedback, such as, “They should be given more leadership opportunities,” or, “They should be more strategic,” or, “Their work should get more visibility.” Shallow feedback is deceptive, because it seems valuable on the surface, in that it’s asking them to do more. In reality, it’s too shallow to be actionable. For example, telling someone to be more strategic isn’t helpful if the person lacks a good definition for what a strategic project is, let alone how to approach it strategically.
• Nonspecific feedback means giving observations without examples, such as, “They need to speak up more in meetings,” or, “Their communication needs to be more succinct and clear,” or, “They’re too confrontational.” Nonspecific feedback is the most deceptive, because it’s technically growth feedback. However, without specific observations, it’s too difficult for the recipient or manager to contextualize. For example, telling someone to speak up more in meetings isn’t helpful without knowing which meetings they should speak in more, moments they could have spoken up in the past but didn’t, and what they should speak about.

Bullshit feedback leads to bullshit outcomes

Bullshit feedback is wasted time and effort for the writer, reader, and recipient. By giving vague, nonspecific feedback, the writer is only serving themselves: they put in minimal effort and get to protect their own feelings (not being perceived as mean) at the cost of helping someone else. Managers waste time reading it and sending follow-up requests for more detail. Without a strong manager to interpret and reframe the feedback, recipients are left with directionless growth.

Without actionable feedback, recipients are likely to take on aimless bullshit jobs to shore up a weakness or justify a promotion. They’ll invent projects of marginal value to the organization, volunteer for any projects that seem important, get upset about not being given important work, or try to wrestle responsibilities away from others. In the most vicious cases, it can look like controlling others, land-grabbing, inflating project importance, or imposing unnecessary pressure or urgency.

Constructive feedback leads to growth

Whenever you write feedback, as a peer or a manager, you can provide the most value by being direct, focusing on behaviors over traits, and giving clear requests for change.

• Observations: Start your feedback with specific observations of behaviors that include the who, what, where, and when. Observations are not judgments, they’re objective behaviors or situations. Imagine it was recorded on video. If it’s a repeated behavior (e.g., speak up more in meetings), simply provide one or two examples. If it’s directional feedback (e.g., be more strategic), write observations of when they weren’t, or could have been, doing that.
• Impact: Next, describe how the behavior impacted you, others, or the organization. How did others feel when they observed the behavior? How were projects affected by the behavior, or lack of behavior?
• Request: Last, provide specific changes in behavior or new actions the person should take. Imagine the situation happens again, what behaviors would be more impactful? If they could do the project again, what could they have done differently? If it’s directional feedback, look at upcoming projects and share how you’d like them to be involved. It’s okay if they’re just suggestions, you don’t need to own their growth, just set them on the right path.

If you can’t provide this type of constructive feedback, consider telling the manager or recipient that you don’t have enough experience working with them to provide valuable insights.