08- Why You Should Constantly Ask For Feedback

Summary

In this episode, we discuss how you can quickly improve at your job by constantly asking for feedback.

Episode Transcribed

Years ago, I worked on a project that was completely different than anything I had done previously. The objective was to improve the corporate culture of my company. I was managing the working group responsible for proposing and implementing changes to the HR processes, such as improving the interview process to vet candidates for their behavior, strengthening the promotion process to promote people with consistent good behavior, and changing the salary incentives, etc. I felt like I was thrown into a world of uncertainty and had no idea how I could possibly succeed in improving something that seems so intangible. And on top of that, one of my biggest challenges was managing my working group, which was made up of senior-level managers who were asked to work on this project in addition to their already busy schedules. Since this type of project was new for me and had a tight deadline, I needed to manage the working group in the most efficient and effective way possible. The only way I could do that was by asking for feedback constantly.

Gathering feedback is the process of gaining information on your performance to use as a basis for future improvement. It’s someone’s evaluation of your performance, advice on how you can improve, constructive criticism. Collecting feedback allows you to improve by helping you to understand where you should focus your efforts. Since you are only human, and nobody is perfect, you will always have room for improvement in the workplace. And, when you are doing something new — and therefore almost certainly have room for improvement — you should seek the counsel of others even more often. That brings us to this episode’s smartcut: The more you ask for feedback, the more you can improve. 

Now going back to the working group, in the first few meetings we had, everyone showed up on time and brainstormed with a lot of enthusiasm. Over the next few meetings, however, some people were late, and not everyone had been completing their tasks between meetings. I was getting increasingly more frustrated, and so were the people in the working group who did their half. We needed to improve the way we worked. At the end of each meeting, I started to ask others for their advice on how I could improve the way I was leading this working group. First, I asked a couple of people I trusted for ideas of how to make the meetings more efficient, how to get people to participate more, and how to encourage them to accomplish goals between meetings. They suggested things like starting the meeting on time so that when anyone showed up late they would realize that from now on, this was a meeting that would begin on time and they needed to be there when it started. The next few times, I asked the entire working group at the end of the meeting what we can change to more effectively reach our goals. One suggestion was to start with ice breakers to wake up people’s minds since the meeting was early in the day and on a separate more creative topic then their other responsibilities.  Another suggestion was to send the agenda to everyone 15 minutes before the meeting so they could review it and mentally prepare. I then asked some advisors I trusted to give me honest advice on ways to improve my performance. They advised that I should make more of an effort to keep people on the topic by telling them we needed to move on when discussions were continuing for too long and not producing any decisions or actions. With each piece of feedback I received, I was able to make changes that led to improvements in productivity. 

Many people don’t understand when to ask for feedback and from whom. The truth is, you can ask for advice from anyone at any time. Not only from your manager but your peers, senior colleagues, junior coworkers, and your own employees. Everyone has their own perspective, and you may learn something new from each of them. That is why 360 degree reviews - where people are evaluated by employees, peers, and managers - are becoming more common in companies. You can also ask for feedback at any time. Ask for feedback on something during the meeting, at the end of a meeting, as you walk out of a meeting, at the coffee machine two days later. Ask for suggestions on how to improve after a presentation, a class, a workshop. That is why continuous feedback performance evaluations - where people are encouraged to provide feedback to each other daily or weekly - are also becoming more common in the workplace. 

In order to get honest feedback, you must be clear that you want honest feedback. Harvard Business Review says, “Let people know they’re doing you a favor by being truthful. ’Don’t be nice,’ you can tell them. ‘Be helpful.’ Explain that you want to get the most out of the conversation, and it won’t work if they hold back.” You can find the link to this article along with the full transcript of this episode at Careersmartcuts.com. 

By taking action on the feedback given to me, I was able to steer the group to hit the deadlines and complete the objectives. We implemented an additional interview dedicated to assessing behavior and we updated the promotion process and improved the compensation incentives. The success of this project ended up leading to me receiving more responsibilities. My manager said “I’m going to keep giving you more responsibilities if you keep showing me you can handle everything I give you.” It was incredibly satisfying to have succeeded in something I had viewed as so daunting and insurmountable just months earlier. 

Through my experience in this example and throughout my career, asking for feedback has been a fantastic method to allow me to be constantly improving and accomplishing my goals. It allowed me to learn where to focus my efforts on improving, and it will do so for you as well. In addition, if you shorten the amount of time between asking for feedback and taking action more often you can improve more quickly. It can also give you a clear view of how the person providing the feedback perceives you. Lastly, it can provide you with a clear view of your weaknesses — which you may have never noticed before.

Conclusion

To summarize this episode’s smartcut, you will improve and grow more as an employee when you ask others for advice on your performance. You should all apply this career smartcut into your lives as soon as possible by constantly asking the people around you for ways they think you can improve. Set up one-on-one’s with your manager. Ask your colleagues for advice on specific things, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem. Thank you for listening to this episode of career smartcuts. Follow or subscribe to this podcast now, because it’s time to accelerate your career towards success, however you define it. 

https://hbr.org/2014/12/how-to-ask-for-feedback-that-will-actually-help-you