Feedback is a very useful way to improve yourself and your career, and, chances are, if you work as a software developer, every quarter, or maybe every 6 months, performance cycles come into the picture.

A performance cycle is essentially a touchpoint-style moment where you align with your manager on your performance and expectations for the upcoming period of work, and, for the most part, that alignment is done by collecting feedback from your manager and your peers, so, there's a very high chance that you might have needed at some point to give feedback to some your colleagues.

If you're anything like me, this probably feels like a daunting task, right? It's never easy to find the right thing to highlight and it feels even harder when you know that there are things that should be improved, but, simultaneously, you don't want to alienate your relationship with your colleagues by appearing to be too blunt or too harsh.

In the book "Culture Map", by Erin Meyer, there's the idea that different cultures perceive feedback differently depending on whether people are from one of four quadrants: combining high and low-context and direct or indirect negative feedback.

The way people are either very explicit or hide their true message in-between the lines and either are very direct when giving negative feedback or more subtle (sometimes contradicting their primary form of communication) can cause some really tricky situations. However, there are ways to navigate this culture map that can make it easier for everyone:

• Always try to offer something positive: even if it's something small and it goes against the spirit of the general message you want to convey;

• Be honest in your assessments: don't try to be smug or too humble or kind if you don't mean it. Some cultures take that to heart;

• Always be willing to listen: never dismiss another person's opinion and abandon any preconceived notions you might have;

If you follow these small steps, you will come across as a more genuine person who delivers accurate feedback and receives it well in a multitude of scenarios!