Choosing the Right Words

It's important for us to use the right words when we communicate with others in the workplace. Do you know the difference between some "feedback" and an "update"? Alan gives a real-life example of an email from a boss to a subordinate that has unintended results.

A while ago, I was reminded about the importance of choosing the right words in our communication.  I was working with a South American client—let’s call him Antonio—on his emailing skills, and I read a note he had sent to an American subordinate.

Antonio started out the email like this:  “Tim, I wanted to give you some feedback.”

In the 3 short paragraphs that followed, Antonio (again, the boss) gave Tim a compliment, shared some information, and then expressed his thanks.

When I got to the bottom of the email, I was puzzled.  It didn’t contain what I expected, so I read it again.  And again.

It finally occurred to me, Antonio had set Tim up for bad news but then only shared positive things.  When a native speaker writes “I have some feedback for you,” the reader is expecting criticism.  If the message is from your boss, like in Tim’s case, you have that heart-sink feeling.  The thought is, “Uh-oh, I did something wrong, and now I’m going to hear about it.”

The situation here was that Tim had only done good things.  However, because the email had started with the word “feedback,” Tim was going to be reading the rest of the note looking for the bad news...which never came.

In this case, the right word choice would have been “update.”  When Americans hear “feedback,” they understand that as a warning.  In short, an update is for news (or something neutral), while feedback concerns quality or accuracy (and usually something bad). 

I’ll post a transcript of the email in our What’s Up? blog, so you can read it for yourself.  In the meantime, pay attention to the words you choose in your communication.  You could be saving someone a small heart attack.