As managers, we’re told how important it is to give our employees “honest and timely feedback”.  Usually, we’re not given much more guidance.  Managers are left to fill in the blanks, like - how ‘honest’ do you really need to be? 

Certainly, you want them to get a direct message, but without demoralizing them.  And what does ‘timely’ mean? If you give feedback too soon, you haven’t given your employee time to reflect and think on their own; but wait too long, and the time has literally passed for your feedback to have any impact.