Guest blog by Gary Riches.
Whether it is personal goals or being a leader within an organisation, giving and/or receiving feedback is paramount in helping you achieve these goals and the difference in becoming a successful leader or not.
Always, and I mean always, be grateful for feedback you are given – even if you haven’t requested any feedback on whatever it is you have just done. Sadly we all have blind spots linked to how we act and behave, but we just can’t see them ourselves because you are you and you have always been you – it’s only others who can see them and it’s only others who can point these out to you. So like I said, be grateful for any feedback.
You personally can’t get better at anything without feedback, and being open to feedback is the first step to improvement.
Being open to feedback helps build relationships and trust, allowing you to reciprocate the feedback when the time is right. Actioning the feedback given is key to continuous improvement and achieving whatever it is you want to achieve. I always ask for feedback on things I do – whether it is chairing a meeting which may have five people in attendance or delivering a keynote speech to hundreds of people, I need to know straight after the meeting or event how I performed, and most importantly I need that feedback to be frank and candid – because if I get a response from someone along the lines of “it was good that” then I don’t have an area of focus to get better the next time I do it. You may not like hearing that you didn’t do something well, or you need to improve for next time, but once you get comfortable being uncomfortable you really will flourish and become a top performer regularly.
Now the easy bit, giving feedback – telling someone exactly what you think of their performance. Actually this is the hardest part so here’s a few tips to make sure you get it right every time when giving feedback.
Always make sure that people are fully aware that you can take the most candid feedback yourself, before you start giving it out. Remember the blind spot thing? Ask someone to observe you giving feedback, someone who doesn’t really know the context of the feedback – this way they can focus on how you deliver it and how you react to the person’s reaction who you are giving the feedback to. Remember when you were young and your parents would say “if you haven’t got anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all” – well if you keep your mouth shut people aren’t improving. When you have a relationship with someone and it is clear you care personally about them, I don’t mean you know when their hamster’s birthday is, I mean you care personally about how they perform and want them to improve. Once this relationship is established you can give instant and direct feedback and work closely with that person to help them implement anything you have suggested.
I hope you have found this useful, and as always I’m open to any feedback…
