I have to provide feedback for a coworker. The form contains a field for strengths and another one for development areas.
I have no meaningful negative feedback to provide. What should I write instead? The field cannot be left empty.
I've considered:
Are either of these acceptable, or is there something more appropriate?
PS: The feedback will be shown to the manager, not directly to the coworker.
Development is not limited to negative feedback. You can also provide suggestions on skills that can be further improved, new skills that can add value to the team and so on. For example, you might say this person is a strong team member and more junior members would benefit from being mentored by him or her.
You can list shortcomings under "development", but don't assume it's just code for "put your negative feedback here." An excellent entry would be
Our team is going to need [more?] X skills next year and [this colleague], who has strong Y skills already, is well placed to be the person who learns those skills.
It's not negative that the colleague doesn't know X already but it suggests a skill that the colleague might develop over the next review period.
If you really cannot think of anything that it would be helpful for your colleague to "Develop" then go ahead and put "none" in that field, but I think you'll come up with something once you stop equating it with "complaints and deficiencies."
Write "I work well with this individual, and I have no complaints about working with them."
