Giving criticism–whether by email, over the phone, or face-to-face–can always be awkward. Even if the message is basically the same, the way you deliver it plays a huge role in how well (or badly) it’s received. No manager is going to get through to a struggling employee if they don’t find tactful ways to broach the subject.

If that much is familiar, then so is the “praise sandwich” many a manager has been counseled to deliver. This is when a point of criticism is wedged between a couple of compliments. It goes something like this:

Wow, you really killed it on the introduction to that sales presentation. The middle seemed to slow down a bit too much with the overload of sales numbers, but the end was really fantastic.

Voila! You’ve packaged your criticism in between two compliments, like a porcupine nestling among a couple of pillows. And maybe some employees will respond well to that, but chances are you can do a lot better. Here are a few subtler, and ultimately more effective methods to deliver effective feedback.

This may seem like another way of saying “compliment sandwich,” but bear with me. If you stop grasping for related compliments you can stick onto the criticism and just whittle down to the criticism itself, it’s usually easier to deliver a coherent piece of feedback.

From: The text in your presentation was good, but the charts need work. To: The text in your presentation was great. We need to improve the charts so they’re just as good.

From: You need to do more research for your last analysis. To: The first analysis in your report was right on. Let’s do the same amount of extensive research in the last analysis that made the first one so good.

Use an aspect of their own work as the new standard to strive toward.

In both examples, you’ve ditched the contrived structure of a compliment sandwich and related the point of criticism to the bright spot–they form part of a coherent whole. You’re essentially saying: “You did great here, so I’m sure you can do great over here.” It’s an extra warm and fuzzy way of wording criticism because you use an aspect of their own work as the new standard to strive toward.

Instead of directly criticizing by saying a presentation needs to make use of more resources, or that a report needs to be revised, you can ask questions that lead your colleague to the answer themselves.

From: You need more resources to support your presentation’s credibility. To: Could you find any resources that would improve the credibility of your presentation?

From: This report needs some revision. To: What do you think needs to be revised in this report?

In both cases, you’re empowering your team member with a chance to take personal responsibility and find their own ways of improving their work. You’re also telling them to do something through your question. In the first example, you’re asking them to look for resources, which they may not have known to do. In the second, you’re making it clear that the report needs to be revised–and asking them to reflect on how–without commanding them to do so and leaving it at that.