Give your senior more than vague praise

When a successful senior asks for better feedback, bring one recent observation, connect it to an expectation from your company's own role framework, and ask what they want to practise. Give them something they can examine with you, beyond a general verdict that things are going well.

A team lead described exactly this problem on r/ExperiencedDevs: their senior engineer was doing well, had taken on initiatives and had received a pay increase, yet wanted more structured feedback. The company had competencies; the manager still needed a way to make them useful in conversation.

That individual account offers a precise starting question: what can you say about good work that helps the person understand and develop it?

Bring evidence you can both discuss

Before the next 1:1, choose one piece of work you actually observed. Write down:

• The moment: which discussion, decision or handover are you referring to?
• The behaviour: what did the person actually do or say?
• Your interpretation: what made that useful, and what evidence supports your reading?
• The expectation: which relevant statement in your company's role framework does it connect to?

Keep observation and interpretation separate. If you did not see enough of the work, say so and ask for context. Avoid filling the gap with a personality label such as “natural leader.”

Lighthouse's feedback guidance likewise recommends preparing specific examples, listening to the other person's account and agreeing clear next steps. Treat that as a useful approach to try. Here, start with something worth understanding and repeating; you do not need to manufacture a weakness.

Turn praise into a shared practice

Here is a fictional worked example:

Instead of “You're doing well,” try: “In Tuesday's design review, you asked the quieter reviewers for risks before we chose an option. I saw two concerns enter the discussion that we hadn't considered. How did you decide when to invite them in?”

Then bring the relevant expectation from your own framework, if one applies. Ask how the engineer reads that moment and what they would find useful to practise next. Their answer may change your interpretation.

Choose one practice together, including any support they need from you. Record what you will revisit and when there is likely to be another relevant opportunity. At the next conversation, ask what happened and what they learned before deciding whether to keep or change the practice.

If the request is really about promotion, clarify that directly and use your company's promotion process. Keep the coaching agreement distinct from a rating or a promise of advancement.

Give the next conversation something to return to

A useful record keeps the observation, the engineer's interpretation and the practice you agreed. That lets you revisit the actual conversation rather than reconstruct what “doing well” meant.

1on1 provides guided recurring sessions, written context and tracked actions. For this conversation, use that continuity to keep the agreed practice available for follow-up. Your company's role expectations still come from your company; the manager and report do the interpreting.

Before your next 1:1, bring one observed example and one relevant expectation. Ask what the person wants to learn from it. If you need a dedicated place to carry the conversation forward, explore the 1on1 workflow.

Sources and references

• A team lead's request for structured feedback, r/ExperiencedDevs
• Constructive feedback: prepare, listen and act, Lighthouse
• 1on1: guided recurring conversations