Leveling Up as a Tech Lead

Chapter 5. Unlocking the Power of Feedback

A Note on Terminology

In this chapter, I’ll refer to two types of feedback—positive and constructive:

Positive (or reinforcing) feedback

This feedback highlights what someone is doing well, reinforces good habits, and builds confidence.

Constructive feedback

This feedback focuses on surfacing blind spots, helping someone overcome challenges, or encouraging new behaviors.

Technically, both are constructive: they contribute to someone’s growth. But in this chapter, when I say constructive feedback, I’ll mostly be referring to improvement-focused feedback: the kind that helps someone see what to do differently or better.

As a tech lead, one of your primary responsibilities is helping your team members grow. There’s a whole toolkit available to you with items like mentoring, sharing knowledge, and delegation, but none are as impactful as feedback. Yet, despite its power, feedback is often underutilized or mishandled.

I see it all the time: tech leads who shy away from giving feedback because they’re afraid of damaging relationships or pushing cultural boundaries, or they’re unsure how to approach it. They worry that giving constructive feedback will make them seem harsh or unkind or jeopardize trust they’ve worked hard to build. So they stay quiet, hoping the issue will resolve itself; often, though, it just tends to fester.

On the other hand, there are those who deliver feedback carelessly, leaving team members discouraged or questioning ...