How to Give Feedback as a New Manager (Without Waiting for Review Season)

You notice a missed handover, a meeting where someone was talked over, or a piece of work that made the team better. Then you tell yourself you will raise it at the next 1:1. The next 1:1 becomes a status update. Review season arrives. The feedback is now carrying six weeks of frustration.

As a new manager, timely feedback is one of the clearest ways to make the role safer and more useful. It tells people what to keep doing, what to adjust, and what support is available. It also gives you an early view of whether expectations are clear.

You do not need a grand speech or a new performance system. Start with a short frame: Situation, Behaviour, Impact, Ask. SBI gives you the observable part. The Ask turns it into a conversation rather than a verdict.

Why feedback feels harder when you are new

You may be managing people who were peers last month. You may worry that a correction will make you look uncertain, damage the relationship, or reveal that you do not yet know every detail of the work. Those worries are normal. They are not a good reason to stay silent.

Silence is not neutral. People fill gaps with guesses. A high performer may assume their approach is perfect. Someone who is struggling may not realise what “good” looks like. A team can start treating a missed commitment, a sharp comment, or a poor handover as the accepted standard.

The answer is not to comment on everything. It is to make a few specific observations while they are still easy to act on. Feedback should be a regular part of working together, not a ceremony reserved for a form.

A simple script is: “In [situation], I noticed [behaviour]. The impact was [impact]. For next time, could you [ask]? How does that land with you?” The first three parts keep you grounded in facts. The final part gives the conversation somewhere to go.

Concrete SBI → Ask examples

Example 1: A missed handover

Instead of “You need to communicate better. The team cannot keep chasing you”, try: “In yesterday’s client handover, the project status and open risks were not in the shared note by the agreed time. The person taking the afternoon shift had to reconstruct the context and the client waited for an answer. For the next handover, could you add the status, risks, and owner in the template before 3 pm? If that timing is not realistic, let’s work out a better one.”

This is firm without turning one missed handover into a judgement about character. It names the standard and offers a practical way to meet it.

Example 2: A contribution that helped

The frame is not only for correction. Specific recognition shows people which behaviour is worth repeating: “In this morning’s planning meeting, you summarised the disagreement and named the decision we needed. That stopped us circling and helped the group agree on a next step. Could you use that same summary at the start of next week’s planning session? I’d also like to learn how you decide when to step in.”

Praise that says only “great job” is pleasant but difficult to reuse. The situation and behaviour make the recognition useful.

Example 3: A pattern in meetings

For a repeated pattern, name it calmly and choose a recent example: “In the last two team meetings, you responded before Priya had finished explaining her concern. The conversation moved on before we understood the risk she was raising. In the next meeting, could you let the speaker finish, then ask one question before offering your view? What do you notice from your side?”

The Ask is specific enough to observe. The question at the end gives the person a chance to explain, disagree, or add context without making you retreat from the feedback.

How to deliver the conversation

Choose the right moment

Small, low-risk feedback can happen close to the event. A quiet word after a meeting or a short note asking for ten minutes is usually better than storing it up. For a sensitive or repeated issue, book a private conversation and say what it is about. “I’d like to talk about how the last few handovers are working” is kinder than an unexpected ambush.

Do not give serious feedback in a public channel, in front of the team, or while someone is rushing between commitments. If the issue involves safety, harassment, discrimination, or a formal performance process, use your organisation’s process and involve HR or the appropriate support early.

Prepare one observation

Write down the situation, the exact behaviour, the impact, and your preferred Ask. If you cannot describe the behaviour without words such as “always”, “never”, “careless”, or “bad attitude”, pause. You may be carrying a conclusion instead of an observation.

One conversation does not need to resolve every frustration. Start with the clearest example. If there is a wider pattern, say that you want to look at the pattern, then bring two or three specific moments rather than a prosecution brief.

Say it plainly

New managers sometimes wrap feedback in so much softening that the message disappears: “This is probably nothing, and I might be wrong, but maybe, if it is okay, you could perhaps think about sending the update a little earlier.”

Warmth is not vagueness. Try: “The update needs to be in the shared channel by 10 am so the team can plan around it. Yesterday it arrived at 2 pm. What got in the way, and what will make 10 am workable tomorrow?” You can be open to context while still being clear about the standard.

Listen, then decide the next step

After the Ask, stop talking. The person may have information you did not have: a dependency, a conflicting priority, an unclear owner, or a reasonable disagreement with your interpretation. Listening is not the same as withdrawing the feedback.

• “That context helps. The impact still happened, so what should we change next time?”
• “I had not seen that dependency. I will remove it, and I still need an early warning if the deadline is at risk.”
• “I see it differently. Let’s agree what evidence we will look at and when we will revisit it.”

Close with one next step, an owner, and a date to check in. If the issue is about your own management, invite feedback back: “What could I do differently to make this easier to raise earlier?”

Common feedback anti-patterns

1. Saving everything for review season. A review should not be the first time someone hears about a problem. Use reviews to look at themes and progress, not to deliver a surprise archive.
2. The compliment sandwich. Wrapping a correction between two unrelated compliments makes the listener wonder when the real point will arrive. Give praise and course-correction their own clear conversations.
3. Mind-reading. “You do not care about the project” is a guess about intent. “The agreed risk was not raised until the client call” is observable.
4. Feedback by message only. Written notes are useful for a quick reminder or follow-up. Nuanced or emotional feedback usually needs a conversation.
5. Making it about your authority. Explain the standard, why it matters, and the support available. Your role gives you responsibility for clarity, not permission to skip it.
6. Changing the standard mid-conversation. If the person raises a constraint, separate the questions: was the result acceptable, and what support or system change is needed?

A short practice checklist

• I can name one specific situation and date.
• I have described the behaviour, not the person’s character or intent.
• I can explain the impact in plain language.
• My Ask is observable and realistic.
• I have chosen a private, timely setting where needed.
• I am ready to listen without arguing every detail.
• We will leave with one next step and a check-in date.
• I know whether HR or another formal process needs to be involved.

Practise the words out loud once. You are not trying to sound like a leadership textbook. You are trying to be clear enough that another human can understand what happened and what to do next.

Make feedback part of the operating rhythm

Put a small feedback prompt in your 1:1 agenda: “What should I keep, change, or clarify?” Use it for both directions. When feedback becomes a normal part of the week, it takes less courage to raise a small issue and less time to repair one.

Start with one conversation this week. Keep it specific, listen properly, and agree what happens next.