“Constructive feedback does not naturally flow upward or downward…. Far too often, journalists of all levels are left to divine for themselves what they’re doing well, what they need to improve and what they should stop altogether.”
So says Butch Ward, a member of the Poynter faculty, in “The Value of Feedback.”
Feedback helps people improve.
“Withholding constructive feedback is like sending people out on a dangerous hike without a compass,” Edward Wertheim, associate professor of human resources management, says in the article.
Withholding feedback is also is inefficient for the editor. How many times have you corrected the same errors and made the same edits in stories? Why not let the writers do that themselves? They won’t if you don’t tell them how.
In “The Value of Feedback,” Ward lists several questions that you should answer frequently for your staff. Paraphrased, they are:
How well am I doing my job?
What are specific examples of what I am doing well and what I need to work on?
What will improvement look like? Do I have a plan for measuring my growth over time?
How can I achieve my ambitions?
As an editor and a leader, you are responsible not just for putting out a good paper, but for developing your staff into better writers and reporters. So take some time to sit down with that struggling sophomore, to go over her story and highlight a few strong areas and a few places she could improve. Don’t forget the positive, and don’t overload her with criticism.
Give people on your staff attainable goals and watch as they reach them.
