I’ve just realised that it’s feedback season again. Annual appraisals, performance reviews and all of that feedback coming in to you about what you’ve done last year, how your performance is rated.
So I thought I’d just stop by and suggest a few things to remember when you’re getting all of this feedback. And I hope the person doing your performance appraisal, takes these on board too.
The first thing is, feedback is really just an opinion. Yes, it could be a very credible opinion depending on who it is, but it does depend on who it is. So whenever you’re getting feedback, try to regard it as input to your personal decision-making process about what you’re going to do differently.
Look at the source of that feedback and think, “Well, do they really know what they’re talking about? Are they qualified to be able to give that feedback and how reliable should I consider that feedback to be?” This is not to try to dismiss and undermine all the feedback that you’re getting. Of course it’s not. It’s not to present arguments back. It’s so you can weight it appropriately in your mind.
The other thing is that feedback is quite often political. Hate to say it, but there are a lot of politics that tend to go on around many workplaces and some people might be giving feedback that isn’t quite true or has been exaggerated for other purposes, for what they’re trying to achieve. Maybe to cover up their problems, to deflect attention away from their lack of performance or to get you in trouble because you hurt them last year at some point in time. Bit of a vendetta going on. So also factor in what political motives might be there for that feedback. Not so that you can deny it, not so that you can argue that it should be disregarded, just so that you can bear in mind it might be slightly tainted.
Another thing to think about, that feedback is given at a particular point in time. There could have been a lot of other things happening for that person. That person could have been having a really bad day and it’s got nothing to do with you. And suddenly the email popped into their inbox saying can you give feedback on Joe. And suddenly, “Oh, that’s the last thing, I need right now. Oh well…” , And off they go, doing it in a hurry.
With all of these matters it’s important that you don’t just take feedback as the gospel honest truth. It’s not a fact. It is a statement in time from a particular source, that may or may not need to be taken regard of, taken notice of and changing the way you behave and the way you perform. It could well be, but not necessarily.
So be an independent thinker when it comes to feedback. Be very circumspect about what impact it has on you and take your own intelligent decisions about what you’re going to do in the light of that feedback and then continue to grow, stretch and become more.
The Gautrey Influence Blog
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