Some people advocate giving good feedback before and after bad feedback. Doing so is actually harmful. Instead, good leaders deliver tough feedback directly.

Every once in a while history repeats itself—and those who fail to learn from it are doomed to repeat it. This post is in the spirit of that truism. Today, I heard about someone receiving the infamous “but” sandwich form of feedback. Given that, I can’t help but post some thoughts I shared way back in January 2008. I’m also posting it for the benefit of the thousands of new folks who read this blog nowadays vs. the 11 or so who read it back then. So here’s a good wayback post that’s just as true today as it was back then.

A really cool thing happened today—I had a referral come to this blog from a prestigious newspaper’s website forum on career and management styles. At first I was like, “Wow! I’ve been noticed by a leading periodical.” Then I read the content of one of the posts on the site and lost my mind. No—the post wasn’t something bad about me or my blog. It was offering advice that made me cringe as a professional manager.

The advice was about how to give critical feedback to your team members. It suggested:

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