How to Give and Receive Feedback in English - Business English Lesson

Hi, I’m Marie. Welcome to Oxford Online English! 

In this lesson, you can learn how to give and  respond to feedback in a 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.

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Let’s start by looking at how  to give positive feedback.

Hi, you wanted to talk to me?

I did? Ah, 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 liked  

how you handled the meeting with Omnitouch.

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 in that position.  

Also, the visuals you prepared for  our presentation were very impressive.  

They looked professional, but also  communicated key information clearly.

Glad you think so.

Anyway, I just wanted to let  you know. Keep up the good work!

Will 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 customer’s  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-organised, 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 organise 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.

Huh…

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.

OK, that’s my fault. I’ll be more careful.

Finally, you need to tidy up the  language. There are spelling mistakes,  

ungrammatical 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? Pause 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’  means 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 are telling that person to work  carefully and pay attention to detail. 

Generally, if you want to give feedback  directly, you’ll use simpler statements  

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’ + a verb, as in ‘you need to’, ‘you should’,  

‘you shouldn’t’, ‘you can’t’, and so on.

Now, what about giving negative  feedback in a 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 humour you  use in meetings and in the office generally.  

More than one person has complained to me that  they find it unprofessional and offensive.

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 what? 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 humour 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 that 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 things in mind;  

hopefully we can avoid similar issues in future.

In this dialogue, you saw how to  give negative feedback indirectly.  

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 humour 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 humour 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 describe specific incidents.

Think about the differences between direct  and indirect language that you’ve seen here.  

When you need to give someone negative feedback,  it’s good to decide which approach to use,  

and control your language accordingly.

Right, so, about the new design for the logo…

Yeah, I’m curious to hear your thoughts.

First of all, the colours  look strange, don’t 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 colours on my desktop.  

I know how I want it to look.

OK, that sounds good. Now, I like the  basic design, with the overlapping circles.  

I do think the text should be larger.

Alright, I can look into that.  Sometimes it’s hard to balance the  

proportions 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.

Hmmm…

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’ll 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?

OK, that 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 point,  

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 thinking time.

Let’s see the answers together. To acknowledge or agree with a  

point someone makes, you can say ‘I’m  aware of that’ or ‘That 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!