How feedback can help everyone grow?

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” George Bernard Shaw

Feedback is a great tool to help leaders share a perspective and improve a two-way communication process that can serve a discussion for opportunities and growth. 

Many leaders wait until a problem occurs before they give feedback. The key to providing solid feedback is to take initiative, be highly mindful of others’ needs, and be courageous.

If you want to grow as a leader and a follower, feedback is a great tool for your career. Use it wisely and consistently and you are paving the road to a win-win journey for years to come.

Feedback doesn’t always have to be critical.  Feedback can involve the celebration of a moment and / or a suggested development opportunity with someone you care for.   Feedback must be viewed as a bridge between two or more people to create a better awareness of each other needs for growth.

Here are three ways that feedback can be your most effective career development tool for yourself and others:

Speak from the heart

Feedback can only be welcomed and shared if everyone is honest with each other. Honest feedback doesn’t mean blunt and abrupt way of communicating. It’s feedback that comes from our good side to help others succeed. It’s our initiative to cultivate a relationship for the better. We share feedback because we care to uplift others, not to destroy their hopes and dreams.

Embrace feedback

If you share feedback, you must equally be open to embrace it from others on your team.   The best leaders are open-minded enough to receive helpful feedback and use it as a learning opportunity to help them improve and even see situations in a different light. Leadership is not about hierarchy, but a shared journey together to listen to all perspectives. It requires us to listen with the intent to learn something instead of the intent to reply.

Reaffirming the person’s value

A great way to end all feedback sessions is to reaffirm the person’s value of sharing the feedback with.  Great leaders are interested in people flourishing and growing in the process of sharing a perspective. In the end, isn’t that what we all want for our teams, peers and the organization as a whole? When we talk about meaningful, genuine feedback, we talk about “giving” it just as we do with praise.  In the act of giving, we share a gift.

 “To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.” Anthony Robbins