The Feedback Sandwich: Not So Tasty

Many of us grew up in management roles hearing about the use of ‘the feedback sandwich’ as a means of providing feedback that required improvement in performance in a more acceptable manner. The basic concept is to give a layer of praise (first piece of bread), then the negative feedback (the sandwich meat), then a second layer of praise (second piece of bread). The idea was to make it easier on the employee or colleague receiving the feedback and ease the sting that may be inherent with the negative feedback.

The concept was popularized in the 1980s by Mary Kay of Mary Kay Cosmetics in her book “Mary Kay On People Management” although it dates back as far as the 1940s in counseling and management literature.

However, researchers are indicating now that the feedback sandwich may just look better than it tastes. Maybe it’s just changing times, but more and more people find the approach to be too predictable and a little insulting, reacting sort of like “just get on with it, I can handle it”.

For feedback to be useful and generally well-received, it needs to be authentic, come from a place of caring about the work and the employee’s performance, and the individual receiving the feedback needs to understand why you are providing them feedback. For instance, because you want the team’s performance to improve so the team goals can be achieved or you want the employee’s other high performing achievements to be recognized and not overshadowed by whatever you are providing feedback regarding.

It’s true, negative feedback can be intimidating and make people feel badly, which of course seems to be the rationale behind ‘the feedback sandwich’, to lessen the blow so to speak. Another way to approach this issue may be to authentically offer an example of when you have personally received negative feedback and how it benefited you. This humanlizes you as a leader and makes you more relatable, as well as opening up rapport with the employee for future discussions and coaching.

It is also extremely impactful to ask a person if they wish or are open to feedback. If not, any feedback you might offer would likely be wasted breath and time for you both. But if the employee is open to receiving feedback, then one obstacle to acting upon that feedback is already broken down because the environment has been set for the individual to not only accept, but take ownership of and action upon that feedback.

So, throw the ‘bread’ out and get on with a real conversation with authentic feedback.