A guide for mentors: Feedback That Helps
How to give feedback your mentee can use.
What this guide covers
What this guide covers
What this guide covers
When feedback backfires
Feedback can make things worse
In one large review, over a third of feedback effects lowered performance.
Aim at the work
Talk about the work, not the person
Feedback on the task and how it was done helps most, praise of the person least.
- The person “You are smart” helps least
- The task what is right, what is missing
- The process how it was done
- Self-checking how they can judge it next time
Ask first
Ask before you give feedback
Ask what they want feedback on and what they already think of it.
- Would some feedback on this help? It lets them say yes.
- How do you think it went? Often they name it first.
What happened and its effect
Describe what you saw and its effect
Name the moment, what you saw and its effect, then stop and listen.
- The moment “In Tuesday’s client call”
- What you saw “you answered before they finished”
- The effect “they repeated the question twice”
- Their view “How did it feel to you?”
High standards and belief
Pair high standards with belief
Saying you have high standards and trust them to meet them made students revise more.
- High standards “I am pointing this out because the bar here is high.”
- Belief “I know you can reach it.”
Look ahead
Point forward, not back
Advice about next time was more concrete than feedback on the past.
Less is more
One or two points at a time
Choose the one or two changes that matter most this month.
- Does it matter for their goal?
- Can they change it soon?
- Will they see a result?
Follow up
Ask what they did with it
At the next meeting, ask what they tried and what happened.
- Advice
- They try it
- They notice the result
- You talk it through
Mentornity in Claude
Use Mentornity from Claude
Ask in your own words; Claude finds meetings, opens your hours and drafts your messages.
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Ask in your own words
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A preview before every change
Claude shows what will happen; nothing changes until you say yes.
Disconnect any time
Claude sees only what you see; Settings shows what it did recently.
Connect it once
Add Mentornity in Claude or another MCP assistant, then sign in.
Ask in your own words
Find a slot, move a meeting, read profiles, fill in forms.
A preview before every change
Claude shows what will happen; nothing changes until you say yes.
Disconnect any time
Claude sees only what you see; Settings shows what it did recently.
Sources
The research behind this presentation
- Kluger, A. N. & DeNisi, A. (1996) The effects of feedback interventions on performance: A historical review, a meta-analysis, and a preliminary feedback intervention theory Psychological Bulletin, 119(2), 254-284
- Hattie, J. & Timperley, H. (2007) The power of feedback Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81-112
- Yeager, D. S., Purdie-Vaughns, V., Garcia, J., Apfel, N., Brzustoski, P., Master, A. et al. (2014) Breaking the cycle of mistrust: Wise interventions to provide critical feedback across the racial divide Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(2), 804-824
- Blunden, H., Kristal, A. S., Whillans, A. V., Yoon, J., Burd, H., Bremner, J. & Yeomans, M. (2026) Eliciting advice instead of feedback improves developmental input Management Science, 72(3), 2247-2266
Give one piece of forward advice
Name the moment, what you saw, and one thing to try next time.