Never stop learning.
That’s good advice, but there’s one type of learning many people avoid: Feedback. Why do people avoid feedback? It can teach you a lot about your strengths, tendencies, unique perspectives, knowledge gaps, and weaknesses. It’s also vulnerable. There’s a chance that someone is going to tell you that you’re doing it all wrong. Who wants that?
We think feedback makes us stronger. Rather than shy away from it, here’s how to ask for feedback that can help you take positive steps forward.
Put yourself out there
If no one knows you’re open to feedback, you probably won’t get it. Look for moments to ask your team what they think about a recent decision or change, then follow up to invite their comments. The more avenues you create for people to share their thoughts, the more quality feedback you will receive.
Establish trusting relationships
Asking for feedback is only going to work if you’ve already established a relationship and your team members know that you value their point of view. A relationship that’s open and communicative will create opportunities to ask questions and contextualize the kind of feedback you’re looking for.
Send surveys
Anonymous feedback can get at hard truths. It’s also a way to get perspective on feedback since surveys provide quantitative data. Is everyone generally happy with how things are going? If so, then that one person with negative feedback might be an outlier. However, if an overall score is middling or low, then it’s critical to look closely at the individual comments to try to figure out what’s going wrong.
As you distill the results, make sure to follow up with participants to share the results. Then, as you work on improvements, make sure to share that progress with the team so that they know their feedback has made a difference.
Don’t take it personally
It’s a good sign that people care enough to give you feedback. Consider any feedback a stroke of good luck and take full advantage of the opportunity to improve. Your team will appreciate your responsiveness and you’ll keep becoming Never stop learning.