How to Give and Receive Feedback in English Business English Lesson

Hi, I’m Marie. Welcome to Oxford Online English! 

In this lesson, you can learn how to give and 
respond to feedback in a professional environment.

You’ll see different ways to give 
positive or negative feedback,  

and how to give negative feedback 
in a more direct or indirect way.

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Let’s start by looking at how 
to give positive feedback.

Hi, you wanted to talk to me?

I did? Ah, yes, I remember! It won’t take long.

Is there a problem?

No, not at all! Actually, I just 
wanted to tell you I really liked  

how you handled the meeting with Omnitouch.

Oh, thanks!

It was a challenging situation. None of us 
thought they would come in with so many difficult,  

technical questions, and, honestly, that guy 
– what was his name? Brian? – I thought he was  

being quite aggressive. I admired the way you were 
able to keep your cool and stick to the point.

Sure, I suppose it wasn’t the easiest meeting,  

but it wasn’t too stressful. I’m 
used to situations like that.

Yes, but still, not everyone 
can stay calm in that position.  

Also, the visuals you prepared for 
our presentation were very impressive.  

They looked professional, but also 
communicated key information clearly.

Glad you think so.

Anyway, I just wanted to let 
you know. Keep up the good work!

Will do!

In the dialogue, you heard different 
ways to praise someone’s work.

Look at some sentences. 

Can you remember the missing words? If not, 
you can review the dialogue if you want. 

Here are the answers.
You can use these phrases  

in other ways. For example: ‘I really liked 
how you explained everything so clearly.’ 

‘I admire the way you never miss a deadline, 
even when we’re under a lot of pressure.’ 

‘The way you dealt with that customer’s 
complaint was very impressive.’ 

What about you? Can you think of other 
ways to complete these sentences? 

Think about your work recently. Have your 
colleagues done anything which impressed you? Use  

your own ideas to complete these sentences. Pause 
the video and say your examples out loud now. 

What about ‘keep up the good 
work’? This is a general phrase.  

You can use it when you’re pleased with 
someone’s work, and you want to encourage them.

Next, what if you need to give 
someone negative feedback?

Can I have a word?

Sure, what is it?

Well, I had a chance to look 
through your draft proposal.

Oh?

I’ll cut to the chase: it needs a lot of 
work. This is a long, complex document. It  

needs to be well-organised, clearly laid-out, 
and make a good impression on whoever reads it.

So, what needs changing?

Honestly, I think you need to go back to the 
drawing board and think about how to organise your  

ideas. Currently, it’s hard to follow because it’s 
incoherent. You jump from one topic to another,  

which makes it difficult 
to focus on your main idea.

Huh…

Also, you need to pay more attention to detail. 
I checked some of the data you quote, and many  

of the figures are inaccurate. I didn’t check 
everything, because that’s your responsibility.  

Remember that their legal department will 
also be looking through this, so it needs  

to be watertight. Double check any figures or 
other data you’re using and don’t cut corners.

OK, that’s my fault. I’ll be more careful.

Finally, you need to tidy up the 
language. There are spelling mistakes,  

ungrammatical sentences, missing punctuation, 
and so on. I hope it’s obvious that you can’t  

make spelling mistakes in a piece of writing 
like this; it won’t make a good impression.

No, of course not.

So, do you think you can deal with this and get 
a revised draft to me by the end of the week?

Sure, I’ll do that.

When giving negative feedback, you can choose 
between being more direct or more indirect.

This depends on many things: 
the country you’re in,  

corporate culture, your relationship with 
the person you’re talking to, and more.

Here, you saw some ways to give negative feedback 
directly. Look at some phrases from the dialogue. 

Imagine someone asks you to explain what 
these phrases mean in English. How would  

you do it? Pause the video and think about 
how to explain the meaning of these phrases. 

‘I’ll cut to the chase’ signals that 
you’re about to say something negative  

in a direct way. It’s a way 
to introduce a criticism. 

‘Go back to the drawing board’ 
means to start something again.  

You use this phrase when something is not going 
to plan, and you need to start again from zero. 

If you cut corners, you rush your work, 
or you don’t pay enough attention to it.  

If you tell someone ‘don’t cut corners’,  

you are telling that person to work 
carefully and pay attention to detail. 

Generally, if you want to give feedback 
directly, you’ll use simpler statements  

with ‘you’. For example: ‘you need 
to pay more attention to detail.’ 

‘You should double check your 
figures before you send it.’ 

‘You can’t go into a meeting 
like that unprepared.’ 

Direct language is generally simpler. You can use 
‘you’ + a verb, as in ‘you need to’, ‘you should’,  

‘you shouldn’t’, ‘you can’t’, and so on.

Now, what about giving negative 
feedback in a more indirect way?

Do you have a minute?

Sure, what’s up?

There’s a little issue I wanted to discuss 
with you. Actually, there have been some  

complaints about the language and humour you 
use in meetings and in the office generally.  

More than one person has complained to me that 
they find it unprofessional and offensive.

Really? Like what?

I don’t want to get into specific cases. I just 
want to remind you that this is a workplace,  

and there are certain standards of 
conduct that we all have to adhere to.

So what? No jokes allowed?

That’s not what I’m saying, but it’s important to 
understand that not everyone will have the same  

perspective or sense of humour as you. It’s 
advisable to be cautious with your choice of  

words, especially in meetings or other situations 
where perhaps not everyone knows each other.

This seems a little unfair, given that you’re not  

saying who made these complaints, 
or what I’m supposed to have said.

Well, this is just a friendly chat, but I have 
also observed some examples of these issues  

directly. I don’t want to take this further, but 
I would like you to keep these things in mind;  

hopefully we can avoid similar issues in future.

In this dialogue, you saw how to 
give negative feedback indirectly.  

Here’s a question: what are some 
features of indirect language? How  

is indirect language different from the 
direct language you heard in part two? 

Indirect language is generally softer and more 
impersonal. When giving negative feedback,  

if you want to be indirect, you’ll 
generally avoid sentences with ‘you’.

Instead, you’ll use impersonal constructions, 
for example with ‘there’. You heard ‘There  

have been some complaints about the 
language and humour you use in meetings.’ 

‘There are certain standards of 
conduct that we all have to adhere to.’ 

Or, you might use impersonal constructions 
with ‘it’, as in: ‘It’s important to  

understand that not everyone will have the 
same perspective or sense of humour as you.’ 

‘It’s advisable to be cautious 
with your choice of words.’ 

Take that last example. How would 
you say this in more direct language? 

You would say something like: ‘You need to 
be more cautious with your choice of words’,  

or ‘You should be more cautious…’ 

Also, indirect language tends to be less 
specific. In the dialogue I avoided going  

into details about the problem. I didn’t say who 
had complained, or describe specific incidents.

Think about the differences between direct 
and indirect language that you’ve seen here.  

When you need to give someone negative feedback, 
it’s good to decide which approach to use,  

and control your language accordingly.

Right, so, about the new design for the logo…

Yeah, I’m curious to hear your thoughts.

First of all, the colours 
look strange, don’t you think?

Sure, I’m aware of that. I made the prototypes 
on my laptop while I was on the road,  

and the screen isn’t good enough for design 
work. I’ll adjust the colours on my desktop.  

I know how I want it to look.

OK, that sounds good. Now, I like the 
basic design, with the overlapping circles.  

I do think the text should be larger.

Alright, I can look into that. 
Sometimes it’s hard to balance the  

proportions when you start changing 
things, but I’ll see what I can do.

Then, I think the thing I like least is 
these triangles on the right. Overall,  

it looks too busy. There are too 
many shapes and different parts.

Well, there I have to disagree with 
you. Our logo now has triangles inside  

a circle. This new logo takes the same 
elements, but presents them in a new way.  

It’s different, but there’s also some continuity 
with the current logo, which I think is important.

Hmmm…

I mean, I can try to come up with some more 
ideas, but I don’t think this particular logo  

makes sense if you take the triangles 
out. Plus, it’ll look unbalanced.

Look, I like it overall, but I 
don’t want to rush this decision,  

and I think you could improve on 
this design with a bit more time.  

How about you come up with one or two more 
versions, and then we’ll decide as a team?

OK, that sounds fair. I’ll see what I can do.

When someone is giving you feedback, 
you can respond in different ways.

You can acknowledge their point,  

or agree with it. You can promise to 
take action. Or, you can disagree.

Look at five phrases you heard in the 
dialogue. Can you remember the missing words? 

Pause the video if you need more thinking time.

Let’s see the answers together.
To acknowledge or agree with a  

point someone makes, you can say ‘I’m 
aware of that’ or ‘That sounds fair’.

You could also use phrases like ‘I understand,’ 
‘I get it’, or ‘I take your point.’ 

To promise to take action when 
someone gives you feedback,  

you could say ‘I can look into 
that’ or ‘I’ll see what I can do.’

You could also say ‘I’ll work on 
that’ or ‘I’ll get on it right  

away’. ‘Get on it’ means to start working 
on something. It’s a more informal phrase. 

To disagree with someone, you could 
say ‘I have to disagree with you.’

If you want to be more indirect, you 
could say ‘I’m not sure I agree’,  

or ‘I have a different perspective on that.’
If you want to be more direct, say something like  

‘I don’t think that’s true’ 
or ‘I don’t agree with that.’ 

Now, you should know different ways 
to give and respond to feedback.  

You can review parts of the 
video again if you need to.

Thanks for watching!

See you next time!