Accepting Feedback Faces Growing Challenges
Are you good at accepting feedback? Which side of feedback are you most comfortable with, giving or receiving?
When I ask about the feedback exchange in workshops it is usually a mixed response. Some of it is conditioned by the culture of any given organization, but much of it is conditioned by past experiences.
Past experiences drive perceptions of future information. Criticism and ridicule are destructive. Even when someone tries to dress it up with the use of the word, constructive.
Are the challenges with feedback growing?
Leaders and Feedback
In the workplace leadership and culture is driven by the people. Not just one person or two, but everyone. Even customers and vendors may play a role in how organizational culture takes shape.
Some leaders struggle with being liked, or not. They take being liked as the foundation for everything and if they are disliked it is hard to deal with.
Leadership and relationships go hand-in-hand, yet being liked may not be the most important aspect. Being respected is probably much more meaningful.
Formal authority or your ranking position may give your authority but when it comes to respect it is all about your behavior.
Feedback drives everyone, including those in leadership roles.
Accepting Feedback
Accepting feedback is especially challenging these days. There seems to be an abundance of criticism and disrespect. If you have a different idea you may face being cancelled. If you have an older idea, belief, or value, you’re first threatened, then cancelled.
It is important to differentiate feedback from useless criticism.
Feedback should be a tool for learning. Sometimes it is a tool for learning more about the giver rather than the receiver. It seems intended for the receiver but it may also reveal other underlying issues or problems of the giver.
Not everyone has to like you. Not everyone will.
The emphasis on being liked is rooted deep in social media. It is the more is better concept.
Technology algorithms reinforce this.
Feedback may not always be accurate. It may not always spark change.
Be careful about what you allow to sink in.
-DEG
Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.
