Re-establishing Trust to Maximize the Power of Feedback

Feedback has the potential to be incredibly powerful, but it can also be variable.

💬 For feedback to be effective, we need to know:
✔when to give it
✔how to frame it

AND

We need to make sure the receiver:
✔is ready to receive it
✔understands it
✔knows how to use the feedback to advance learning, and
✔has the opportunity and tools needed to do so

It can be challenging to know how best to provide effective negative or critical feedback so that it leads to improvement without destroying self-confidence and motivation along the way. In part because a lot depends on the environment and the relationships present within.

Interwoven into environments where mistakes are seen as learning opportunities is a sense of belonging and trust. And these environments characterized by trust and support allow people to receive critical feedback and work through mistakes in a positive way and can prevent self-defeating behaviors and mindsets.

💡 The idea is this → if you receive negative feedback from someone you trust, you are more likely to accept that they have your best interests at heart, and are acting in good faith and not because they have some bias or preconceived notions against you and your abilities.

I've written about this idea before as it relates to students in an educational context and am happy to have collaborated with the awesome Tutti Taygerly (author, speaker, and executive coach) on a piece in Fast Company that explores this idea in underperforming high-potential employees.

If you've ever been giving feedback to an employee, or a student, and feel it isn't being received in the way you intend, consider there may be a mismatch that can be addressed in some simple, yet powerful ways!