It's not easy!

progressfull welcoming feedback Dec 18, 2022

So here’s a thing, ask over 1 billion people on the planet what they were doing on Sunday 18th December 2022 and most likely they will say 'watching the World Cup final’. Nothing enchants so many of us at the exact same point in time, so much as watching the World Cup

What's more, do you know what are the all-time most watched single-network television broadcasts in the US? According to Nielsen, of the 32 most-watched broadcasts, 30 are Super Bowls

In Feb 2022 over 101 million people watched the Superbowl, in the US alone, including 75% of 18-34 year olds. What’s more, in 1969 an estimated 652 million people watched the live broadcast of the Apollo 11 moon landing (approx. 1/5 of the world's population at the time)

There are lots of reasons why we gather together to watch great achievements, to feel a sense of belonging, to feel the awe and excitement of another’s accomplishments and to feel inspired at the potential we have as humans

We are awestruck by the speed of the game, the strength of the players, the tactics, the soaring of the space craft, the achievement of something which generations before us would literally have thought was impossible – it seems like magic!

What we don’t see is the hard work, the dedication, the grind, the research, the tacticians, the strategists, the scientists, the coaches, the psychologists, the engineers, the years and years of dedication, commitment, trial and error – and feedback – more of this, less of this, try this, now this, what about this, better, yes, that’s it – you’ve got it! Let’s go!

The truth is, these amazing achievements which inspire us all seem like magic, but they are not magic

What they demonstrate is that with vision, determination, effort and practice the seemingly impossible can be achieved. Yet it is also true that nothing that is worth anything in life is easy and one of the hardest things to do is to welcome feedback

What’s important is to realise that when we say vision, we mean not only the idea in the first place, but also the vision of others, often experts and coaches whose vision of what good looks like and what they know is possible is actually a key ingredient we need to help us achieve what we are capable of, how far we can go, what we can do with our natural talents, what skills we can learn from these experts – in other words – feedback

The thing is – despite admiring the great achievements of others – one of the reasons that few of us really do achieve greatness, really do achieve our full potential is that most of us really are not open to feedback. Managing our resistance to feedback - whether giving or receiving is not easy!

Do you excel at giving and receiving feedback, are you a superstar at managing your resistance to feedback?

Welcoming Feedback is about mastering the skills required to receive feedback well, manage our resistance to feedback and as a result unlock our potential. It is about engaging in feedback conversations with confidence and curiosity, and finding insight that helps us increase our perspective – our vision of what we are capable of and how we can achieve it

Managing our resistance to feedback is quite a thing!

Having the courage to expand our perspective by seeking and welcoming feedback is truly liberating. A recent study looked at a series of situations where feedback could help people in business. The situations ranged from having a stain on a shirt during a business meeting to bigger problems, like a tendency to interrupt colleagues, or write rude emails. People were asked to rate, on a 1-10 scale, how much they would want feedback in each situation, versus how much they thought another person would want to receive the same feedback. In every case, people rated their desire for feedback higher when they were imagining themselves as the receiver than when they were imagining themselves as the giver. In fact, the more consequential the situation, the larger that gap seemed to be. “People tend to focus on the discomfort of delivering feedback, and underestimate the value of the feedback to the other person, including how much they would appreciate the feedback, and how impactful it would be,” said the researcher

Our tip for you is to think more about the benefit for the receiver – the other person - of hearing a new perspective that would help them in some way. Think less about how uncomfortable you feel about the thought of the feedback conversation and focus on how you can share your observations helpfully and without judgement. You will then be welcoming feedback

To motivate you a bit further, a McKinsey survey of 12,000 managers indicated they consider “candid, insightful feedback” critical to career development

Give it a go … choose to Welcome Feedback both as a giver and as a receiver. Just imagine who may well be trailblazing at the equivalent of a future World Cup, Superbowl or even soaring through the skies!