Feedback

Understanding how we best give, solicit, and receive feedback has been a passion of mine for the past decade.  Understanding perceptions of you (real or otherwise), your work, your teams, etc. all can add so much value.  How do you know where you stand in the eyes of your team, peers, and manager?  What are your strengths?  What are your opportunities for growth?  Which of your weaknesses are debilitating your career?  I have found that when I ask for and receive consistent feedback, I see myself differently and my potential increases.

Giving Feedback

The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) has an amazing article about giving feedback.  The intent in giving good feedback is to:

• Situation - Describe the situation.  Be specific about when and where it occurred.
• Behavior - Describe the observable behavior.  Don't assume you know what the other person was thinking.
• Impact - Describe what you thought or felt in reaction to the behavior.

SBI has been so invaluable over the years, mostly due to my rush to skip the situation and parts of the behavior to focus on the impact.  If you really want someone to continue or change, you need to help them see the situation and the behavior as you witnessed it.  Just like in The Power of Habit, you need to help them see what cued their routines that led to this reward/impact.  Positive or negative feedback, this has been a lifesaver in 1:1's, retrospectives, and postmortems.

Soliciting Feedback

Asking for feedback can be attempted in so many ways.  The methods that have worked best for me are in these forms:

• Make sure the person you're soliciting feedback from has sufficient time and free of distractions to cover the topics you'll be covering.  Few things pale in comparison to partial feedback leaving you guessing.
• Triangular your decision.  Give options for clear choices of responses.  If you have a list of to do items but you aren't sure how to proceed, give them a list and ask them to prioritize them.  If you're unsure what are the most important qualities to your manager, give them a list and have them pick out two strengths and two opportunities that best apply to you.
• If you don't have a list or options to share, come in with specific questions that succinctly describe your situation and desired direction.  Sharing your concerns only show that you've identified a problem.  What have you tried?  What are the possible outcomes?  What do you recommend?

Receiving Feedback

As you can tell, I'm a big proponent of asking for and acting upon feedback given.  The most impactful way to receive quality feedback is to provide a safe place for it to be given.  Ask yourself these three questions:

• The last time I received feedback, what verbal and non-verbal cues do I exude during and after the feedback was received?
• Did I immediately try to rebut negative feedback with evidence to the contrary or ask more questions in attempts to first seek to understand?
• Did I thank them for the feedback and build a place of trust that allows further feedback to be given?  Did I ask them if I could follow up with them at a later date to verify the behaviors have changed (if negative) or have continued (if positive)?