01
Vague messages
Great job and be more careful are kind or well meant, but they do not tell anyone what to keep doing or what to change.
Camderson Academy · CA-LM-006
Give feedback people can use, and hear feedback without getting defensive.
A practical, self-paced course for every person who works with other people, in every role and department. Learn to give specific, useful feedback to the people you work with, your peers and your manager, to receive feedback without getting defensive, and to make asking for feedback a steady habit.
About 3 hours · 6 lessons with video · Beginner · Self-paced · Tools and templates you keep · 30-day money-back guarantee
Most people want more feedback. Very little of it moves sideways or up.
02
Saved for the review
When feedback waits for the yearly review, last spring's problem gets fixed far too late, and good work goes unnoticed.
03
Held back, or heard as an attack
People hold back feedback to peers and managers, and when feedback does arrive it can feel personal, so the useful part gets lost.
Learning outcomes
What you will be able to do
Six practical outcomes, each practiced in an exercise and checked in the final assessment or the capstone.
- Explain why feedback helps, when it backfires and why it matters in every direction at work.
- Prepare and give specific, behavior-based feedback, reinforcing or redirecting, that invites the other person's view.
- Give feedback to a peer in a way that protects the working relationship.
- Give respectful, useful upward feedback to a manager or leader.
- Receive feedback without defensiveness: notice the trigger, listen, clarify and decide what to use.
- Ask for useful feedback and build a steady feedback habit you can see week by week.
The Camderson method
Teaching tools for feedback you can use tomorrow
The Specific Feedback Builder
Situation · Behavior · Impact · Question
Check any message before you give it: when and where, what a camera would have recorded, what happened as a result and, for redirecting feedback, a question that invites the other person's view. Built on the Center for Creative Leadership's Situation-Behavior-Impact.
The Peer Permission Check and the Upward Feedback Planner
Purpose · Permission · Private and prompt · Partner on the fix · Shared goal · Idea and ask
Give feedback across to a peer and up to your manager in a way that protects the relationship and makes it easy to say yes.
The Receiving Reset
Notice the trigger · Listen to understand · Clarify · Decide: use, try or park
Hear feedback without getting defensive, even when it stings, and decide calmly what to do with it.
The One-Question Ask and the Feedback Practice Tracker
One topic · One future-looking question · Thank, do not defend · Act and report back
Ask for the feedback that would help you most, and see your habit grow week by week across every direction.
Be specific. Ask first. Listen well.
Curriculum
Inside the course
Three modules, 6 lessons with worked examples and video
01
Feedback That Helps
Why meaningful feedback matters and when it backfires, the Four Directions Map, and the Specific Feedback Builder for messages people can act on.
02
Feedback in Every Direction
Feedback to a peer with the Peer Permission Check, and feedback up to a manager or leader with the Upward Feedback Planner.
03
Receiving Feedback Well
The three triggers and the Receiving Reset for hearing feedback without getting defensive, and the One-Question Ask and Feedback Practice Tracker for making feedback a habit.
What is included
Skills, tools and templates you keep and use at work
- 6 lessons, each with a written lesson, worked examples and a figure, and a narrated lesson video, at your own pace
- A running example from Kilnworth Community Credit Union, a fictional credit union where a supervisor practices feedback in every direction for eight weeks with a team member, an IT analyst, a loan officer and her own manager
- A fillable Workbook with Try it and Reflect pages for every lesson
- A Feedback Toolkit (Word) with a template for every tool and a filled example of each
- A Feedback Practice Tracker spreadsheet with live formulas for your practice score, directions and follow-up rate, plus Kilnworth practice files with solutions
- Quick Reference Cards and the Kilnworth Case Pack
- An optional visual companion PDF with every lesson slide, plus a dated list of every source used, with links
- Knowledge checks for every module and a 20-question final assessment
- A Feedback Practice Plan capstone for your own work or a fictional public library, reviewed by a person
- A Camderson Academy Certificate of Completion when you pass the final assessment and the capstone
- Access to the Camderson Academy community
Is this course right for you?
This course is for you if
- You work with other people, in any role or department, and want feedback conversations to feel easier and more useful
- You want to give a peer or your manager feedback without damaging the relationship, or you tend to hold back
- You want to hear feedback, even clumsy or unexpected feedback, without getting defensive, and to ask for the feedback that would help you most
It is not the right fit if
- You need the basics of a new manager's role (CA-LM-001 First-Time Manager Essentials covers that, including the NOTE method)
- You need to plan a high-stakes difficult conversation or a performance process (CA-LM-002 Leadership Communication & Difficult Conversations goes deeper)
- You need HR or legal advice about discipline, a complaint or a specific workplace issue (the course points you to HR or a qualified adviser)
Your instructor
Meet your instructor
Ruben Tejada
MA, MS, PHR
Managing Partner · Leadership & Organizational Effectiveness
Ruben Tejada is a strategic advisor and organizational leader whose career spans healthcare, public service, human resources, operations, and learning and development. He has advised executives and leaders on leadership development, talent development, employee experience, culture and succession planning, and has led initiatives to strengthen leadership accountability and build workforce capability. Years of building and facilitating workplace culture and leadership training give him a practical view of how small, specific, regular feedback changes how teams work. In this course he helps you give feedback that is specific and kind, in every direction, and receive it with curiosity instead of defensiveness.
About
About Camderson Academy
Camderson Academy is the education division of Camderson Advisory Services. Camderson helps leaders build organizations that work without them in the room. Everything we teach has been used in a real organization first.
Training a team?
We offer group enrollment for teams and whole organizations that want every person, in every role and department, to share the same feedback tools and language. Email connect@camderson.com to talk through your group.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need any experience or a previous course?
No. This is a beginner course with no prior course needed. It works whether you lead a team or have never led anyone, because feedback travels down, across, up and in for everyone.
Who is this course for?
Every person who works with other people, in every role and every department: team members, specialists, coordinators, project leads, supervisors, managers and owners. The examples move across member services, lending, IT, operations and leadership, and the capstone uses a public library.
How long do I have access?
Your access does not expire. We review the course regularly, and any updates are added for you at no extra cost.
How long does it take?
About 3 hours in total, including the written lessons and their videos, the Try it exercises, the knowledge checks, the final assessment and the capstone. Everything is self-paced, and most exercises use real conversations from your own work.
Do I have to use my own work for the capstone?
No. You can build your Feedback Practice Plan for the fictional Brackenridge Public Library using the brief included. If you use your own work, use roles instead of names and leave out personal and confidential details.
Is this HR or legal advice?
No. This course is general education about workplace communication. It is not HR or legal advice. If feedback involves possible harassment, discrimination, safety, health, leave, pay, discipline or another workplace policy or legal issue, involve HR or a qualified HR adviser or employment attorney, and follow your organization's policies.
Is the certificate accredited, or does it carry professional credit?
Neither. You receive a Camderson Academy Certificate of Completion after passing the final assessment and the capstone, a Feedback Practice Plan that a person reviews. It is not an academic credential and does not carry continuing education, continuing professional education (CPE) or other professional credit.
Is there a money-back guarantee?
Yes. You are covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee. If the course is not right for you, email connect@camderson.com within 30 days of purchase and we will refund you in full. No questions asked. Your course access ends when the refund is issued.
What tools do I need?
A spreadsheet program that opens .xlsx files (Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers or LibreOffice Calc), a word processor that opens .docx files and a PDF reader.
Be specific. Ask first. Listen well.
Self-paced, about 3 hours, with a Workbook, a Feedback Toolkit, a Feedback Practice Tracker and Quick Reference Cards to help you give specific, useful feedback in every direction and receive it with curiosity instead of defensiveness.
Backed by our 30-day money-back guarantee.
This course earns a Camderson Academy Certificate of Completion. It is not an academic credential and does not carry continuing education, continuing professional education (CPE) or other professional credit. This course is general education about workplace communication. It is not HR or legal advice. If feedback involves possible harassment, discrimination, safety, health, leave, pay, discipline or another workplace policy or legal issue, involve HR or a qualified HR adviser or employment attorney, and follow your organization's policies.