Business Skills - Tips for feedback - Fishing for feedback

fishing for feedback. The feeling of being judged or criticized, triggers a stress response in most of us. This is why performance reviews and annual appraisals are often among the most stressful events in a person's career. What if there were a way to reduce that stress? Many companies have set in stone when performance reviews take place and have set up complicated systems to carry them out. The formality of the review process contributes to its stressful nature, as does the uncertainty of the outcome. So instead of waiting for feedback to come to you, why not invite feedback when you need it and also when you're more prepared for it. This doesn't however mean that you should start fishing for compliments at every opportunity. Your request for feedback need to be strategic but being more open to praise, recognition and corrective feedback helps us all become better at what we do. In these seven tips, we look at how to give people the opportunity to provide you with useful feedback. Getting started. Your goal is to make people feel comfortable enough to give you honest feedback. Make use of all forms of communication. Ask for feedback in emails, text messages and on your company messaging platform. If you have the chance to ask for feedback in person, exploit that opportunity. Signal that you are interested in talking to someone in private, That's when most people feel they can speak their mind, asking for specifics to be truly effective feedback should never be vague, fuzzy or ambiguous. You want feedback that will help you to perform better in your job. You don't just want to find out what other people see as your weaknesses. You want to learn how to build on your strengths in your exchanges state exactly what you would like feedback on, focusing on the positive marketing professionals know that it's possible to frame how people think about a business or product by the type of questions they ask in surveys, A common one might be. What do you like best about our services? This forces people to think back on a positive experience. Could you use the same technique to encourage a more positive view of your work? Only up to a point. It's best to ask specific questions that are relevant to your work and not simply to fish for compliments. Being constructive. It's a nice feeling to get positive feedback, but constructive or corrective feedback can have the biggest impact on your career. Just asking for advice on how to improve your work signals to your peers and superiors that you take your work seriously. It also shows that you respect their input, responding to praise when the comments are positive, show your appreciation. Thank your colleagues or boss for taking the time to give you feedback responding to criticism. Everyone makes mistakes but nobody likes to hear that they're not perfect when you were criticized. Try to avoid a knee jerk reaction first. Let the person know that you appreciate their honesty but be honest. If their comments have surprised you remain respectful. Follow up with questions that could help you explore what's wrong and lead you to better ways of working, see constructive feedback for what it is an opportunity to improve. Indeed, that's the reason why you're fishing for feedback. If you feel completely blindsided by the criticism, you might consider in private whether the person has an ulterior motive for giving you negative feedback, that's not unheard of in the business world, showing self reflection. If you really want regular feedback to become part and parcel of your work culture, you will need to show some self reflection and confirm that receiving feedback does indeed make a difference. This might mean admitting that you can do better and it might mean changing the way you work. A culture of honest feedback can have a positive impact on both you and your team.