A simple way to give and get feedback with your colleagues
Give a colleague of yours some positive, constructive feedback. Show them you noticed their efforts or mindset. And you’ll notice something surprising: you’ll get some feedback as well. You’ll see soon enough how your good spirit tends to be reciprocated. They’ll tell you what they appreciate about you.
This will create trust with those you give feedback to. Earning someone’s trust is more valuable than gold.
This then in turn will create space for the not-so-positive feedback that you might have, when things don’t turn out exactly as you’d expect them to. Because they trust you, they know you mean well.
And guess what, they’ll do the same for you. They’ll help you with feedback that can help you learn and grow. Because they care and want the best for you.
You’ll get kind feedback that can help you see your blind spots.
What can you notice or appreciate? There are many things to appreciate people for: making coffee early in the morning, running very organized and efficient meetings, jumping to help others with work, taking initiative, being constructive about an idea, being honest, being kind, taking the time to talk about a problem etc.
I challenge you to try this experiment: notice when your colleagues do good things and show them your appreciation. I bet you that you’ll notice a difference in the quality of the interactions.
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How do I know all this? Well, some time ago I’ve decided to show people appreciation for their efforts and way to thinking. I know a lot of great people who put their heart into things, but their work gets unnoticed sometimes.
And after a while, I started receiving feedback as well, quite unexpectedly. It’s an unintended consequence and it feels great.
I draw my inspiration from lots of books, but “How to win friends and influence people” by Dale Carnegie explains very nicely how this works.
I wonder how many things you can notice in others. And how long it will take you to get feedback back.
