Receiving Feedback

Most leadership development programs talk about the vital skill of giving feedback, as they should. I hope you’ve been trained on coaching and feedback and that you practice and enhance those skills frequently.

But what about receiving feedback? That is another skill that can be learned, practiced and improved. And it’s a skill I don’t think we provide enough training on. I’ll propose it is difficult if not impossible to give feedback if you aren’t good at receiving it. So, let’s talk about how to practice and enhance the skill of receiving feedback.

Sources of Feedback
Feedback is everywhere if we seek it out and are willing to receive it. Sources of feedback include yourself, other people, system responses and results. Your own assessment of your performance is valuable, but understand we are biased toward evaluating ourselves based on motives and intentions. Other people can’t see our motives or intentions, so they evaluate our actions and results. You should seek feedback from leaders, peers and subordinates, and I think you will find that – in the right kind of culture with the right kind of relationships – there is no more valuable feedback than feedback from your peers.

System responses are excellent sources of feedback because they have no bias. I can tell how well I am typing by what appears on the screen. You know how you have wired a transformer or installed a jumper by how the system responds. And finally, results. We would do well to remember that feedback should be based on performance, which is the combination of results and behavior. Results are important. I play golf and post a score. That score is a result. You take a test and get a score. While the score doesn’t say whether you cheated or prepared well, it is your result. You construct a power-line circuit. The quality and the workmanship are results.

Formal mechanisms for feedback include performance reviews, peer-to-peer coaching, mentoring and post-job briefings. If you are privileged to work for an organization that does those things effectively, make sure you are involved in those activities. But don’t limit the feedback you get to formal programs and processes. Actively develop relationships and seek feedback and coaching from others you trust.

Prerequisites
All of this sounds good in books and magazines but won’t work in toxic cultures or bad relationships. We must be comfortable talking to and challenging each other. And we must care enough about each other to prevent harm and encourage growth. Time spent investing in others, creating culture and developing relationships is time well spent. I will literally beg someone for feedback about a task I am performing if I trust them and if I perceive they are competent in the task and care about me. Solicited feedback works much better than unsolicited feedback.

Your Reaction
If you aren’t getting feedback from others, it may be because you are overusing the first five letters of the alphabet: A, B, C, D and E, or accuse, blame, complain, defend and deny, and make excuses. Do those things when someone is trying to give you feedback and they’ll likely stop giving it. You also must be careful not to overuse feedback and try to please everyone. And note the difference between someone passing off their opinion as feedback and providing an objective evaluation of your performance compared to a mutually understood standard or expectation.

Conclusion
I coach basketball. Often, I tell my players to think about defense when we are practicing offense and offense when we are practicing defense. If, for example, we are practicing our offensive press break and talk about getting the ball to the middle of the floor, that helps us understand to push the ball toward the sidelines on our defensive press.

In the same way, the practice of receiving feedback will make you better at giving it. That’s one reason to learn and practice the skill. The other much more important reason is that feedback is how you improve. Seek feedback from people, system responses and results, and when you get it, don’t A B C D E. And be coachable. Use coaching and feedback to enhance your knowledge, skills, abilities and effectiveness.

Learn More
You can learn more about this article by reading my book “Frontline Incident Prevention – The Hurdle: Innovative and Practical Insights on the Art of Safety.” I also hope you’ll join me for the free May 15 webinar, during which we’ll discuss receiving feedback. Time permitting, we’ll also demonstrate how not to receive feedback, and I promise you won’t want to miss that. I hope to see you there and thank you for reading. Stay safe and be well.

About the Author: David McPeak, CUSP, CIT, CHST, CSP, CSSM, is the director of professional development for Utility Business Media’s Incident Prevention Institute (https://ip-institute.com) and the author of “Frontline Leadership – The Hurdle” and “Frontline Incident Prevention – The Hurdle.” He has extensive experience and expertise in leadership, human performance, safety and operations. McPeak is passionate about personal and professional development and believes that intrapersonal and interpersonal skills are key to success. He also is an advanced certified practitioner in DISC, emotional intelligence, the Hartman Value Profile, learning styles and motivators.

About Frontline Fundamentals: Frontline Fundamentals topics are derived from the Incident Prevention Institute’s popular Frontline training program (https://frontlineutilityleader.com). Frontline covers critical knowledge, skills and abilities for utility leaders and aligns with the Certified Utility Safety Professional exam blueprint.

Webinar: Receiving Feedback
May 15, 2024, at 11 a.m. Eastern
Visit https://ip-institute.com/frontline-webinars/ for more information.