When Should We Give Feedback?
Learn to provide constant, concrete, and consistent feedback to your directs by having frequent one-on-one meetings and team standups.
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"When should I give feedback?" It's a common question from new managers, and the response from experienced managers is almost universally (and predictably) the same: "Constantly." Most don't have a hard time figuring out that "more feedback is better than less or none at all." After all, most of us have learned to develop software emphasizing techniques that maximize feedback, and we generally find it superior to older, more waterfall-ish ways. But a second question looms: "How often? And what should it look like?" At times, a manager can feel like a cheerleader on the sidelines, and it doesn't always feel like you're doing anything when you're waving your managerial pom-poms.
Different circumstances call for different kinds of feedback, and different personalities (both yours and your directs') will mean you need to tune the means and message differently for best results—but the short answer is that "Managers should always be looking for ways to provide a constant, concrete, and consistent stream of feedback to their directs."
Formal reviews
The annual (or quarterly) performance review meeting is an obvious place in which to provide guidance on and review an employee's work and results. Generally, the ...