Receiving Feedback
You can prepare to receive feedback and see the feedback as information to be successful.
Consider how to analyze the feedback you receive productively to build an actionable plan for growth and development that embodies your strengths and opportunities. Discuss how you can best receive feedback with your coach.
Consider How You Receive Feedback
“How we receive feedback is actually more important than how feedback is given” – Stone & Heen
Asking for feedback allows us to learn how we are meeting expectations. When we receive feedback well, feedback becomes a valuable resource. The better we receive it and clarify what is said, the better we can train those around us to give us more useful feedback to accomplish our goals.
Receiving feedback well is more than just nodding your head. Draw awareness and aim to anticipate your emotional responses. When you are receiving feedback, practice active listening. In this way, you will increase the probability of getting value from the current feedback and receiving additional feedback in the future. End with “Thank you for the feedback.”
Reflect on:
What are your goals from the feedback? What are you hoping to learn?
What is helpful context or relationship dynamics you may want to reflect on?
How well do you receive feedback?
How easily are you able to process information objectively?
What would allow you to process the information objectively?
What trigger may come up to bias the information at hand?
Which stakeholders, tools, or resources can you utilize to contextualize and prioritize the feedback? How can you determine what’s important?
How can you turn your takeaways from the feedback into action plans?
How can you hold yourself accountable to those plans?
Five Steps for Receiving Feedback
To receive feedback as objective information that can allow you to be successful practice these 5 steps:
#1 Consider your environment:
Think about both your internal and external environment.
Are you focused? Are you present? Are you in a mindset to think openly and creatively about the information that will be presented to you?
What else is going on around you? Are there distractions or competing priorities? How can you create an environment to process information objectively?
#2 Be mindful of context:
Think about your goals for the feedback and what you are hoping to receive. What are your expectations?
Consider the triggers listed above, what may come up for you? What other biases or context may prevent you from receiving the feedback objectively?
#3 Describe objectively:
Review the feedback to find objective information. Take notes from the feedback without rewording but rather considering what is written and compiling it into trends and categories to review. Consider these questions to help you bucket the feedback objectively in a variety of ways to look for trends and learnings:
What are my greatest strengths from this feedback? Not your opinion, but objectively where do you get the highest quantitative scores, and where do you see the most positive trends in qualitative data? Answer this question by copying and pasting exact quotes and data from the 360.
What are my greatest opportunities for growth from this feedback? Not your opinion, but objectively where do you get the lowest quantitative scores, and where do you see the most constuctive trends in qualitative data? Answer this question by copying and pasting exact quotes and data from the 360.
Overall, how is your performance measured as a leader? Start by noting the standard performance expectations of you as a leader. This may come from your job description, expectations from the company, or expectations you have discussed with stakeholders. Next review the feedback, where do you have quantitative or qualitative responses that speak to your performance as a leader? Answer this question by copying and pasting exact quotes and data from the 360.
What is your leadership style? Where do you have quantitative or qualitative responses that speak to your leadership style? Answer this question by copying and pasting exact quotes and data from the 360.
What are your professional goals, objectives, or KPIs? Where do you have quantitative or qualitative responses that speak to your goals? Answer this question by copying and pasting exact quotes and data from the 360.
How else could you objectively review the information? Do you see any other commonalities, trends, outliers, words, or notes worth pointing out?
Once you have reviewed the data in a variety of ways reserve any judgment or opinion. Step away from your feedback. This is all just information, you have not yet determined its value.
#4 Add value:
Now you can add value, meaning, opinion, priority, judgment, and impact to the feedback you have reviewed. A couple of options here:
Review with internal stakeholders: Consider who are the internal stakeholders who can help you contextualize the relative importance of the information or findings you have noted? “I found these trends in my 360, and I am curious what you think of them and how I should prioritize or focus on them moving forward to achieve my goals?”
What strengths did you note from your 360? How can you utilize those strengths moving forward?
What opportunities for growth did you note from your 360? If you were able to seize those growth opportunities which would have a meaningful impact on your success moving forward?
What other value, priority, impact, meaning, or judgment is important to consider here to determine the feedback you want to apply as a takeaway?
#5 Turn takeaways into next steps:
What have you learned about yourself? Your team? Your work? Your goals?
What are your takeaways?
How do you want to apply this?
In a perfect world, what does success look like from applying your feedback takeaways? How far are you from that today? What are your first steps to getting to your ideal place?
How can you hold yourself accountable to your action plans?
Tools to prep for receiving feedback:
