Being open to receiving feedback and “letting it in” is one of the most beneficial things you can do for yourself to grow and improve your performance. 

When receiving feedback it can be acknowledged with a simple “thank-you” and does not require a long winded “gee…gosh…but..” response. Just as important is acknowledging the feedback in our own minds, taking the time to listen: “Did I hear what they had to say?,” “Do I understand what they said?.” 

TYPES OF FEEDBACK

There are two types of feedback: 

1. Acknowledging Feedback - feedback provided to reinforce, encourage, appreciate a particular action or behavior. It supports the maintenance of good performance and desirable behavior. 

1. Developmental Feedback - feedback is given to correct or bring attention to a particular action or behavior that has been found ineffective or inappropriate. It can be used when you want to help someone do something better or raise their general capability. 

HOW TO USE FEEDBACK EFFECTIVELY 

Feedback is only useful when you take the next step and do something with it. 

Explore the feedback that you receive before you act on it. This will help you to understand why your behavior needs to change. Once you better understand the feedback, produce a plan for how to use it. Ask yourself how you are going to improve and write out the steps that you need to take. This can become an important personal goal. 

HOW DO PEOPLE RESPOND TO FEEDBACK? 

People react in one of these four ways when receiving feedback: 

1. If the feedback is completely positive, they assume that the person giving it is ‘just saying that’ or being polite, and they cannot accept that the praise is genuine. This may be due to a lack of self-confidence or self-esteem. 
2. They accept the negative part of the feedback, but try to explain it, justify it, or blame others for the problem. They may find it difficult to handle criticism or are reluctant to be held accountable for their actions. 
3. They focus on the positive part and use it to reinforce what they already know to be true. This reaction may indicate a resistance or poor listening skills. 
4. If the feedback is negative, they decide that the person giving the feedback is wrong and dismiss the comments entirely. These people can be prone to arrogance or overconfidence. 

In each case, the response means that the feedback will fail to achieve the desired result. Rather than trying to understand how their behavior or performance needs to change or what they can do to build on their strengths, people continue to do what they were doing before, without making any major adjustment or correction. 

WHEN FEEDBACK IS UNFAIR 

Some of the feedback you receive will be useful and will motivate you to perform better. However, some may be the opposite – unusable or downright unfair. Unfair feedback is often harsh, personal, and generalized, and it is likely to be more of a personal attack than a sincere desire to help you improve. If you receive feedback you feel in unfair, then a discussion about it would be warranted and could be planned as you consider getting back to those who provided you with feedback. 

But be cautious to not judge feedback as unfair too soon. You might feel offended but the feedback, or perhaps parts of the feedback, can still be relevant and useful. 

CLOSING THE FEEDBACK LOOP 

An essential part of the feedback process is to close the loop with your respondents. They have provided you with the gift of feedback and will appreciate hearing from you on what you have learned and how you will be responding and acting based on their feedback. Unfortunately, your emotional reactions to feedback may hamper your ability to respond positively to it. It is important though to still close the feedback loop with the person who provided the feedback. This process also promotes a full circle feedback culture in your team and organization. When preparing for your response, you can consider these questions: 

• How did the feedback land with you? What was your (emotional) response? 
• Do you believe the feedback was fair? 
• What are you going to do with feedback? 

What to do with the feedback 

Your action will be dependent upon whether the feedback is acknowledging or developmental and expected or unexpected. In all cases, your initial response will be to show your gratitude for receiving the feedback. 

Expected acknowledging feedback 

You might take acknowledging feedback for granted or don’t do anything with it. There are many things you can however do: 

• Celebrate this aspect of yourself. 
• Determine how you can use this skill to increase your productivity or job satisfaction. 
• Determine how you can use this skill to help others who are not as strong in this area. 

Expected developmental feedback 

If we are honest with ourselves, we are often aware of some of the areas in our work that need improvement. In fact, we are often more critical of ourselves than others are, but we just do not know how to improve without some help. And asking for help is the key word here. 

These are the things you can do: 

• Training or coaching. 
• Ask support from your co-workers or your leader. 
• Identify a role model for the specific behavior and ask for their support. 
• Try, fail, succeed and learn. Determination is your best guide. 

Unexpected acknowledging feedback 

Receiving acknowledging feedback that you are not expecting is like a surprise birthday present. It gives a wonderful feeling to learn something positive about yourself hat was unexpected. But after the initial joy, it is important to examine this feedback further by asking yourself: 

• Why was I surprised to hear this? 
• What previous experiences might have caused me to forget or dismiss this strength or ability? 
• Which capability needs development, so I am not surprised next time? 

Unexpected developmental feedback 

This feedback is the most difficult to hear and understand. But it can also be the source of much self-discovery if you are open to it. Unexpected feedback often comes from areas that you do not want to acknowledge, or are not prepared to face, and it may cause to become defensive or experience other strong emotions. However, when you learn to deal with it, you can take big steps forward on your journey of self-improvement. 

Further questions to explore include: 

• What other information do I need to make sense of the feedback? 
• Can I use this feedback to discover more about myself? 
• How will improving this affect other areas of my job or life? 
• Can I use this feedback to discover more about myself? 

With the answers to these questions, you can put a plan in place to make small, achievable changes in the short term. The plan can include: 

• Training or coaching. 
• Ask support from your co-workers or your leader. 
• Identify a role model for the specific behavior and ask for their support. 
• Try, fail, succeed and learn. Determination is your best guide. 

Content contributed by Helen Morley, 2021