Look for and Listen for True Feedback

Are you a fan of feedback?

I once avoided it. Oh, I'd enjoy positive feedback as much as anyone. Truthfully, I loved it. But feedback for improvement? Or outright criticism? Yeah, go ahead and keep that to yourself.

Even when I taught other people that feedback was a gift, the negative feedback could stay wrapped up as far as I was concerned.

Then I realized that it's only feedback. It may or not be even true. It comes from one person's perspective and that is influenced by so many factors, much of it has absolutely nothing to do with me.

But more important than that -- there are things about my performance I miss. There are things that I don't see, don't hear, don't feel but that other people do and that effects their experience. Since I want my customers, my clients, my learners to all have the best possible positive learning experience when they work with me, the constructive feedback really does help me to do more of what is needed and less of what is not wanted or useful.

Feedback is a gift. Open it up. Unwrap it. Unpack it. Figure out how you can use it without taking it personally. It's not about you, anyway. The best part is about your performance.

Why not make that the best that you can?

-- Doug Smith

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High Performance Leadership

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