Seeking Feedback & Input (In Your Profession)
As the title suggests, this article is focused on feedback cycles in your profession. However, I think you could easily translate some of the principles and practices into other areas of life.
Let's begin a high level and work toward the details.
What is feedback & input?
Put simply, feedback/input is the information & perspectives that are given (or "fed") back to you (or your manager, potentially) from your peers, leaders, direct reports, or other stakeholders.
It complements self-reflection, which is usually the first step in a personal evaluation. After evaluating yourself from your perspective, you reach out to other people for their perspectives.
 |
| Image generated by ChatGPT on 24 Sep 2024 |
Why is feedback important?
We all have blind spots--areas of our behavior, speech, and thinking that we are not aware of. Or, to go a bit deeper, we may be aware of the fact that we're doing (or not doing) something, but we may not fully appreciate how it is being received by others.
That last piece is the wild card factor in dealing/working with people, and it's also one of the primary reasons that feedback is so valuable. It can provide you insights into how others around you think and feel about you and your way of working/acting; and these insights could never have been discovered by you on your own.
How and when should feedback be requested (by you)?
It's a good idea to ask for feedback on a regular basis, not only at "official" performance review cycles or "feedback sessions" that your organization may require. Here are a few reasons to back up that statement:
1) Timing: Most companies have performance review cycles every 6 or 12 months, and that is too far apart for you to get feedback on many aspects of your performance.
2) Bandwidth: When everyone in your company or department is being forced to give and receive feedback during the required cycles, people have less time to provide thoughtful, meaningful feedback. Many of the people who provide good feedback (you know who they are most likely) get bombarded with requests and get burned out.
3) Conflicting interests: Depending on the setup at your company, performance reviews may have direct impact on your salary increases ("raises") or your performance bonuses (if those are on the table). For that reason, many of your colleagues and stakeholders may hold back on the "areas for improvement" section because they are worried about screwing up your compensation (and I don't blame them). Those people are looking out for you, but they are also depriving you of the juicier feedback that you really need.
Next, let's delve into some principles of how/when to request feedback:
1) Timing: Consider asking for feedback immediately after you've done something visible or public, such as a speech, or presentation, or a sales pitch. If you wait too long, the details will get lost in people's memories, and you'll get fuzzier, less helpful feedback.
2) Who to ask: If you're running a business, you might ask every customer for feedback, and that's understandable. Every customer matters. In your workplace, that's not always the case. As much as I might try to make everyone happy, I probably won't. So, give some thought to who to ask. Each person should have exposure to how you work, should have limited or no conflicts of interest (not your best friends), and should be someone you respect enough to take their input seriously.
3) How/what to ask: I strongly advise against using generalized questions, like "How am I doing?" or "What do you think about me/my work?" The quality of your question(s) can directly affect the quality of the response(s). You might ask these type of questions and get lucky with some great responses, but you were lucky! The odds of getting meaningful feedback increase dramatically when the questions are specific.
Here are a few examples of good feedback questions to ask:
- I recently gave a presentation to the team, and I would appreciate your feedback on my delivery (vocal tone & speed, eye contact, gestures, vocabulary).
- You and I have been working on this project together now for 4 months, and I would appreciate your feedback on my data analysis & interpretation.
- Since I became your manager last year, I would appreciate your feedback on how I have supported your personal needs and your career development.
Depending on the way you request feedback, you may need to tweak this for the situation; but in general, the request should ask for positive and negative feedback. Or more specifically, it should ask what you are doing well and what you could improve upon.
Generally speaking, people have a more difficult time giving negative feedback. There are many reasons behind that, I'm sure; but it seems to be pretty universal. But since that's the feedback you need to grow, I suggest you be very clear about what you're looking for.
