Feedback is the breakfast of champions. If you are interested in improving yourself, your business, your products or your services, few things can be so inexpensive and yet yield such dramatic results. Quality feedback is a way to monitor continuous improvement. It’s often free and if you have the courage and consistent discipline to ask for it, it will soon change your life.Feedback in its most elementary form may be stepping on the scale each morning, or recording everything you eat during the day. Both of these activities will help you focus on becoming more physically fit. Many times people have discovered they had cancer, a heart problem or high blood pressure from the doctor’s feedback during a routine physical examination. The good news is you can save your life if a serious health problem is discovered soon enough.
JD Powers and Associates, the market research firm, has developed a profitable business giving companies customer feedback. Our company, DGR Communications, does comprehensive organizational assessments for clients that include interviews with key employees at each level within a company. Many companies use 360-degree evaluation techniques where everyone you interface with has an opportunity to give you feedback. Some people have realized for the first time that they had a dangerous addiction when faced with a planned “intervention” by family members, coworkers, and friends.
Feedback takes many forms. It may be a normal routine. It may be dramatic. It may be personal or it may be sterile and statistical. One thing is certain, if it is going to help in any significant way it will probably be uncomfortable.
“The common denominator of success is this: successful people form the habit of doing things failures don’t like to do.” -Albert E. N. Gray
As a professional speaker I get feedback from audiences all the time. Often a meeting planner will use a questionnaire or survey sheet at the end of a presentation. In the business we call them “smile sheets” because usually they are based on how much fun the people had or if they liked your style. Typically this is not a good indicator of the lasting results to be gained by the individuals or the organization paying the bill for a presentation. Feedback must be accurate to be useful.
Purpose
The purpose of the feedback is a good place to start. Everyone has a personal agenda. The person paying the salary wants a good return on their investment but also realizes if the employee grows, the company will profit. The employee wants to keep a job but hopefully wants to become a better person and be more productive. The evaluator wants to show how smart they are but ideally wants to provide assistance to a colleague.
When you ask for feedback be sure you have taken the time to think it through and that you ask the right questions. Focus the questions to elicit information and suggestions that will be helpful. If you were concerned with improving your job performance, rather than ask, “How am I doing?” try these questions:
- “Specifically what habit do you see I should improve to get promoted, to get a raise, or to accomplish x?”
- “What are my three best strengths?”
- “What do I do that annoys people the most?”
- “From your point of view, what would be my biggest contribution to a management team?”
The purpose of these questions is to elicit specific ideas on how you might improve to advance you management career. Spend time to plan and define the purpose of the feedback you are seeking. Avoid the temptation to look for pats on the back or warm fuzzies. They may make you feel good for a short while but they won’t help you improve and grow.Principles
Try to incorporate the following basic principles when you design your system for disciplined and consistent feedback.
Numbers
The first and in my view most important principle is “the law of large numbers.” The bigger the size of the sample the more accurate the results will be. Be creative in your approach. Feedback doesn’t have to always be a formal process. Seek feedback on a continual basis. Wrap the request in a way that the person sees and believes you are striving to improve and the results will help your relationship with them. They may be a co-worker, client, or vendor.
Common denominators
Recently we designed a new web site. I sought feedback from every technical wizard I knew. They got into it and gave lengthy responses. Clients gave more emotional responses. Colleagues focused on specific points of view that were consistent with their prejudices in marketing their business. My goal was then to look for the patterns in all the feedback. What was a common denominator between the tech wizards, my clients and professional colleagues?
Value
The most valuable feedback not only pointed out what was wrong, from their point of view, but also then gave a suggestion on how to improve. The same is true when it comes to your employees. It’s easy for most people to point out defects. The real value is when you get valuable suggestions for improvement.
Measurement
If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. The simple truth is that most people resist measurement. It’s been said there are three kinds of people:
- Those that know they are winning
- Those that know they are losing
- Those that don’t know the score
Any area in your business or personal life will yield to the positive pressure of measurement. Try measuring the number of prospecting calls you make per day. If you really have courage, step on the scale every morning or write down everything you eat. Measure each time you compliment a co-worker. How much time do you spend watching television as opposed to quality conversation with your significant other.These are examples of feedback that don’t require questionnaires or computer programs or capital expenditures. They are ways to measure yourself. If you implement some of these techniques and then develop a way to validate results by getting external feedback from others you will be able to chart progress.
After you receive the feedback it is important that you record the results. Get lots of feedback from several sources on a continual basis and then record the results on a chart.
Make the chart simple and post it in a conspicuous place. The chart will tell you where you have been, where you are now and most important where you want to go in the future. You will become emotionally involved in competing with yourself and improving. You will be amazed how magical it is to see yourself grow.
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