Heidi Grant Halvorson, motivational psychologist and author of “Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals,” wrote a great post on SmartBrief about giving feedback.

People want more feedback at work but, for a variety of reasons, many aren’t getting it. That’s why this post excited me: it offers up practical tips to make feedback happen, and happen effectively.

According to Halvorson, feedback is more than a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have if you want to keep your team motivated, focused and on the right track. It’s something that you need to do frequently:

“Feedback is more than just useful — it’s essential. It’s hard to get motivated, and impossible to stay motivated, when you aren’t sure if you are on the right track. So giving well-crafted, frequent feedback is one of the most important responsibilities of any leader or manager.”

The challenge many managers face is giving feedback effectively so it has the intended impact: “Even with the best intentions, feedback can easily backfire, and many of us have a hard time understanding why.”

Based on scientific studies of motivation, Halvorson shares 3 simple rules for making your feedback work:

1. When things go wrong, keep it real: “don’t make the mistake of protecting your employee’s feelings at the expense of the truth, because without honest feedback he can’t possibly improve.”
2. When things go wrong, fight employee self-doubt: “[Your employee] needs to believe that success is within reach, regardless of the mistakes he has made in the past.”
3. When things go right, avoid praising ability: “Studies show that when we are praised for having high ability, it leaves us vulnerable to self-doubt when we encounter difficulty…Instead, praise aspects of your employee’s performance that were under his control.”

The key to refining your skills is practice. Get in the habit of sharing feedback regularly and good things will happen.

Photo of Question mark made of puzzle pieces by Horia Varlan. Licensed under CC.