When you’re working on an important project, it’s almost certain that at some point you will ask a colleague or mentor whose expertise you respect and character you trust to look over your work and give an appraisal. Another pair of eyes often sees what you don’t and can help you get beyond your blind spots and produce your best work.
The process is called feedback; it is the reaction to or evaluation of a performance. Feedback that is well presented has the potential to help you recognize your strengths and weaknesses; it provides valuable self-awareness that supports improved skill sets or professional development. Feedback is a form of criticism that can illuminate what you do well and what would benefit from improvement. Feedback inhabits several formats, from a job performance review to a casual conversation with a colleague or mentor. Insightful and timely feedback can alert you to problems capable of tarnishing the outcome of your important project and direct you to potentially more suitable solutions.
Asking for feedback on your work, or even your tennis game, might trigger an awkward moment, for yourself and/or the person you ask. Feedback is often experienced as intensely personal and can be uncomfortable for many people, whether on the giving or receiving end. Recipients of feedback sometimes become defensive, a reaction that makes it less likely that those asked to evaluate a colleague’s work will deliver an unvarnished assessment.
So, the “feedback” given by those who like you is often carefully couched and politically correct, a milquetoast response that’s designed to neither discourage you nor hurt your feelings—a bucket of hot air, in other words. These people may be reluctant to give your work a candid assessment because they want to encourage you and maintain a good relationship with you. Haters, on the other hand, when giving feedback are certain to be either passive-aggressive undermining or will shred you—the hater agenda is always to wound, if not destroy. Both scenarios fall short of delivering actionable advice.
Whom to ask and when
Giving useful feedback is an art, providing a third-party, presumably objective, assessment that confirms what you’re doing well and helps you recognize what needs a correction. Useful feedback is candid and guides you to achieve your personal best. When considering a request for feedback, it is essential to consider the source. Valuable feedback is both honest and astute, meaning you must ask someone who has the expertise to understand what you’re doing, the ability to recognize the strengths and/or weaknesses in your performance and possesses the mentoring skills to swiftly and tactfully guide you to the right path.
Potential sources of practical feedback include colleagues who know your work and with whom you regularly interact, including your boss or a mentor. Freelance consultants might consider reaching out to certain of their clients to solicit feedback. While clients may not be as familiar with your responsibilities and priorities as are workplace colleagues or managers, it may be beneficial to consider a client’s perception of you. Furthermore, client feedback can help you better understand how to attract potential new clients, resolve client concerns and encourage repeat business.
According to Dan Heath, author of Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen (2020), the ideal time to request feedback is when your work —project, important task, or presentation, for example — is 50% to 60% complete. “Asking for feedback earlier in the process gives you the mental space to really re-think, if necessary,” Heath explained.
Ask for specifics
It is in your interest to make the feedback ask a win-win—not only comfortable for the person you approach, but also a demonstration of respect and instructive for yourself—by expressing the request in a way that is less about inviting an opinion and more about adding value. You do that by being specific.
Unfortunately, most feedback requests are handicapped from the start because they are too broad and general. Is there any wonder why the outcome of the typical feedback ask is one person’s opinion rather than discerning and actionable insights? Author Dan Heath is also a fan of specific feedback requests and he sees vague asks as tending to produce weak and ineffective responses. For example, if he were to ask someone, “What did you think of my book?” they would be more likely to say something positive to spare his feelings. Instead, Heath suggests asking pointed questions.
Rather than asking, “Could you give me some feedback?” provide some guardrails for the feedback you’d like to receive. After you’ve identified someone who has the know-how to advise you in this subject, you would then frame your request to position that individual as an expert adviser who can add value. Now, you’ve set up both yourself and the dispenser of feedback as partners in a constructive interaction.
Finally, when looking for feedback on a particular project, think about what you really want to know. For example, if you’re creating a presentation, do you want a critique of your story and how informative and engaging your content is? Or do you want to know if your slides communicate the story and your data visuals are relevant and easy to interpret? The more specific your questions are, the more useful the feedback will be.
When you are clear about they type of feedback you’d find most helpful and the value that feedback could provide, you will likely receive information that’s pertinent to what you’re actively working to confirm and/or improve. From a learning perspective, this provides actionable insights that you can apply immediately.
If you are a golfer, you can put the word out to your LinkedIn connections in your area and arrange a weekend golf outing. It’s no secret then that golf is a very popular sport in America — according to the National Golf Foundation, over 40 million played both on and off-course. Golf’s popularity is especially prevalent in business communities. No matter what industry you are in, there is a good chance your company or management at the company are involved with the game of golf in some fashion. If you are looking for a secret weapon to building connections in your job, networking through golf is the way to go.
Thanks for reading,
Kim
Image: © Shutterstock (2019)
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