And now imagine you should provide negative feedback to someone you can't meet in person. You have to count on criticism expressed via e-mail being more negative for the recipient than a verbal communication. As a result, the recipient may easily lose motivation.
So how to go about it? Practical tips on how to express effectively negative feedback via e-mail were published on the Harvard Business Review website.
1. Start positively
At the very beginning of your e-mail, briefly mention some aspect of the work that the recipient has already done correctly. For example: "Thank you for the quick report on the situation."
2. Use the word "yet"
This way the recipient will not feel that they have done something completely wrong. There really is a big difference between writing "It is not what I expected" and "It is not yet what I expected."
3. Clearly describe what should be improved
Do not criticise without specifying what results you want to see. If, say, a colleague sends you an overlong presentation, instead of responding only: "That it is too long", say instead: "You are on the right lines and if you could just shorten it to 10 slides, it'll be perfect."
4. Avoid imperatives
Imperatives in an e-mail sound very authoritarian. Preference should be given to conditionals. Rather than: "Do it, finish it, arrange it", a better approach is: "Could you do it, finish it, arrange it?" Recipients then justifiably feel that it is up to them how they fulfil the task.
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