Receiving Feedback: How to Separate Appreciation, Coaching and Evaluation

Last week, I enjoyed a couple days in the Connecticut office to immerse myself in an all-day training about World-Class Communication -- led by the one and only Marcus Sheridan. 

Every concept covered was so enlightening to me but one that particularly stood out was all about feedback. Marcus referenced one of my favorite books I read in 2018, Radical Candor, and challenged me by asking whether or not I ask for feedback from my team.

I sat a little more upright and proudly responded "yes, I ask almost every week." When he followed up his question with "and how often do they give you challenging feedback," I realized it was not very often.

On a surface level, you may think that's great! My team doesn't have any issues with the way I coach so I must be the most perfect manager ever.

Right?

Wrong. The reality is, I don't ask them effective enough questions to warrant them giving me direct feedback.

Marcus went on to say that it was not only important for me to receive feedback so I can continue to grow, but that it was just as important for my team to see how I react when receiving feedback so they can continue to grow.

Learning how to receive feedback well can be difficult and it wasn't until I started reading Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen that I realized I am not as open to receiving feedback as I thought I was.

In today's episode, Marcella and I breakdown the three different types and purposes of feedback and discuss how you can dig deeper to understand the reasoning behind the feedback you're receiving.