Do You Listen To Feedback? - The Social Adviser

If you’re like me, you’ve just seen the word ‘feedback’ and freaked out! You may even be under the desk right now reading the rest of this, after all, feedback can be really scary. But fear not, I wanted to share my own insights into feedback in this Top Tip, not that I am any better equipped to handle and implement feedback than yourself, but because I recently changed how I take it on board.

Firstly, throughout my life I have cowered at the phrase ‘feedback’. It sends me into panic mode, I used to sit at my desk in ‘Insuranceland’ and my manager would come and tell me that she had listened to my calls and had some feedback. Immediately I was picturing myself being marched out of the office by the building’s security after single-handedly destroying the company’s reputation & brand. Of course, it was never that bad, but why did I associate such a negative connotation with that word?

It probably comes down to the fact that throughout our lives we are told (more often than not) about the things we have done wrong, and not the things we have done right. And therein lies the problem. We believe that there is a standard, a mold that we must fit and if we leak out over the mold, that’s the part that we’ll get feedback on so we can lop it off and fit the mold again.

My advice for you today has two sides, so whether you often receive feedback or often give it, you can think about how to deal with that feedback:

Receiving Feedback

Think about the last bit of feedback you received. What was it about? More importantly, how did you take it? Now that does depend in part on how the feedback was delivered, but whether it was nice to hear or not, the feedback itself was probably delivered by someone who has a vested interest in what it is you have produced.

They want it to succeed, and by wanting to give feedback, they want it to have the best chance possible of doing so. As they say, more heads are better than one. So next time you get some feedback and you find yourself resisting it, ask yourself why that is and how you can better consider the opinion being delivered.

Giving Feedback

If you are or have been in the position of delivering feedback, again think back to the last time you delivered that feedback. What environment was it in? Was it in passing on your way to lunch, or did you choose a nice quiet meeting room? The environment in which you deliver feedback will have a direct effect on how the recipient chooses to handle it.

Another impactor will be how you put that feedback across. Simply walking up to someone and stating that your opinion on the matter is ‘such and such’ because you’ve been doing it longer or are more talented might not be the best way to get buy-in. They have completed the work in a certain fashion or dealt with a situation a certain way for a reason. Find out what that reason is, and base your feedback around that.

Through my time at The Social Adviser, I’ve been subject to more feedback than ever before in my professional career…. and that’s a good thing! We all thrive on contributing to the team and making everything we can bigger and better, but more than that, I’ve been able to change what I think when I get some feedback. Now sometimes after putting hours into a video, for example, it takes a bit more focus to not get opinionated, but now I can take feedback on and use it to go down new paths that I hadn’t even considered beforehand! A better outcome for everyone!

Ultimately, whether you are giving or receiving feedback, you need to be open to the other person’s opinion; consider it by weighing up its pros and cons, and have a conversation. Celebrate what worked well and know that together, you will have a more unified and ultimately better outcome than working alone. You’ll see that it’s not yourself that is being critiqued, and that’s exactly why I have decided to change how I act when I hear ‘Its time for some feedback Nick…’

Want to give me some feedback of your own? By all means! Hit me up on LinkedIn (http://au.linkedin.com/in/ibeafilmdude) or Twitter (@NickVideoNinja) as I’d love to hear if this has made a difference to how you consider feedback.

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