03/23/2024
Not all feedback is valuable. All feedback is data.
The 'value' of feedback depends on at least three things:
💥 Purpose - what is your intent in gathering feedback?
💥 Source - where is the feedback coming from?
💥 Quality - is the feedback clear? Actionable? Utterly opaque and useless?
For example:
💠 Purpose - If my goal is to grow my skillset as a coach, and I get a lot of feedback about what a great project manager I am, much of that is not relevant to me and my goals. Yes, it's nice to know (feels great!), it might heighten my awareness of how I might bring different skills to bear on my goal, but it's not focused on where my intention (and attention) is. That is not the fuel that is going to help propel me to the next level of where I want to do. Don't put diesel in your Formula 1 race car. 🚗
💠 Source - Be a discerning consumer of feedback. 🔎 The source of the feedback (and data) matters. Am I asking for feedback from someone who hasn't really worked with me? They don't have an adequate data sample to pull from! Further, qualitative feedback is "one person's experience of [you/the thing] at a given point in time." The experience someone has of YOU is inseparable from THEM. Another fallible human who has lived experiences, tough days, good days, hungry or tired days, and different values or ideas than you. People are telling you about 👏 themselves 👏 all the time.
💠 Quality - Did I request clear specifics, or did I invite someone's super fuzzy subjective judgement? Is how I requested/gathered the feedback skillful? Did I create an opportunity where people could share what I'm looking for without fear of reprisal? Were my prompts, questions, or engagements well crafted, and clear? Or did I 'lead the witness' or ask double-, triple-, quadruple-barreled questions that will make the responses a tangled mess of "whattheduck?" I can't act on "you did a great job." There is no growth opportunity there. Is the feedback-giver's definition of "great" even close to mine/appropriate to my goals? You must invite, and support, your feedback-givers to give you clear stories - the what/how/when/where/who - so you can more clearly discern where their 'interpretations' begin and the 'observable reality' ends.
