Receiving feedback is not necessarily easy; in many cases this is because the successful Executive doesn’t give him/herself the permission to be human and display vulnerability. Accepting opportunities for growth is a neat reframing of the feedback process. Successful athletes and sports teams do it all the time, they have an insatiable appetite for feedback, recording and analysing the factors underpinning their performance, with a focus on reproducing the positives and achieving personal targets.

Stanford’s Carol Dweck has found, people approach feedback with either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. People with a fixed mindset believe that inherent talent rather than effort is the strongest contributor to success and this emphasis can have a paralysing effect causing people to focus on maintaining their status rather than taking risks and learning from new experiences. People with a growth mindset believe their qualities are just starting points, which can be developed through hard work, and that effort, persistence, and a willingness to risk failure are the strongest contributors to success.   

Here are our top 3 tips for Giving and Receiving Feedback.

 Giving Feedback

1.      Understand the receiver’s mindset bearing in mind that feedback framed in the language of growth can help develop a growth mindset which is a more resilient space to be in.

2.      Feedback is most useful when it is timely, specific and constructive.

3.      Feedback given with thoughtful planning can be extremely motivational, even if the message is challenging.  Prepare for the feedback session, don’t wing it.

 Receiving Feedback

1.      Listen carefully to all of the feedback, accepting the positive as well as the negative.

2.      Reflect on the feedback and try and see the intention behind the words, don’t argue.

3.      Consider what changes you would like to make and what support you will require.

Praesta publication: Holding up the Mirror: Giving & Receiving Feedback