ART of receiving feedback

Introduction

• Good communication skills are important in the workplace.
• Person-to-person communication skills, such as the ability to give and receive feedback, is one of the most important and challenging workplace skills.
• The book provides proven techniques to develop feedback skills, enabling effective presentation of ideas and becoming a better receiver of feedback.
• The book aims to make feedback less painful and turn feedback sessions into tools to improve job performance and meet important goals.

About the Authors

• Shirley Poertner is the president of Poertner Consulting Group, specializing in organizational development and individual learning.
• Poertner has over 15 years of experience in training and development.
• Before starting her own company, Poertner held key management positions at Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., Meredith Corporation, and First Interstate of Iowa, Inc.
• Karen Massetti Miller is the managing editor of Provant Media's How-To Book Series and president of Writing Works, a consulting firm offering writing, editing, and graphic design services.
• Miller has taught college-level courses in public speaking, business and professional communication, and journalism.

Assessing Your Current Feedback Skills

• The book provides self-assessment tools to evaluate current feedback skills in giving and receiving feedback.
• There are two self-assessments: one for how you give feedback and another for how you receive it.
• The self-assessments involve checking "rarely," "sometimes," or "often" for each statement to indicate consistent behavior in the workplace.
• If most questions are answered with "often," your skills for giving and receiving feedback are well developed.
• If a number of questions are answered with "rarely" or "sometimes," your feedback skills could use further development.

The Power of Feedback

• Feedback is when responding to another person, reacting to their appearance or actions.
• Feedback can take many forms, verbally (speaking or writing) or nonverbally (body language and facial expressions).
• Workplace feedback is specific, by providing information to fellow employees and team members about their acts to help them meet individual, group, and organizational goals.
• Job performance involves competency, whether or not an employee is capably performing specific tasks that have been assigned.
• Work-related behavior involves the way in which an employee performs his or her tasks, speaking politely or working cooperatively.
• Feedback should be focused on acts, directed toward the future, goal-oriented, multidirectional, supportive, and continual.
• Most people associate feedback with hurtful criticism.
• When everyone on your team learns to provide and expect feedback that is focused on acts, feedback sessions become opportunities for creative problem solving.

Useful Feedback Is Detailed Feedback

• To ensure feedback is detailed, it should be specific, accurate, and inquiring.
• Specifiying is providing more and more specific information to the person receiving your feedback.
• Probing is asking the person giving you feedback for more and more details.
• Give redirection or reinforcement as close as possible to the time the act in question actually occurred.

Planning Effective Feedback

• Effective feedback doesn't just happen, so plan what you will say in advance so you can organize your thoughts coherently.
• To plan feedback on track, ask questions to identify if behavior are accurately described, have detailed supports and whether there are any open expectations.

Steps for Giving Effective Feedback

• By choosing the time and place, you can prepare to give feedback and keep the feedback smooth.
• You can give reinforcement in four steps, by describing the behavior or performance, explain the positive impact, credit him or her for success and encourage similar future actions.
• You can give redirection with the six steps that help your feedback recipient plan for the future, redirect the behavior from actions, clarify expectations, acknowledge the problem, adjust his or her actions and thank the efforts.

Steps for Receiving Feedback Effectively

• Whether you're receiving reinforcement or redirection, it's important to probe for as many details as possible, by following with "What could you do differently next time?", so you can improve for goals.
• By staying calm and cordial, approach every feedback situation with confidence, knowing that the information you receive will help you improve your performance.
• There are four steps to receive feedback effectively. You should ask for as detailed information as possible, paraphrase what you think you've heard, seek suggestions for action in the future and thank the feedback.

Feedback and Communication Styles

• The four major communication styles: Driver, Collaborator, Contributor, Investigator.
• Drivers are direct and task-oriented.
• Collaborators are enthusiastic and relationship-oriented.
• Contributors are supportive and avoid change and confrontation.
• Investigators are accurate and detail oriented.
• By understanding your styles and others, you can give and receive feedback effectively.

Handling Difficult Feedback Situations

• It does sometime seem trivial, but if your coworker has personal problems affect to you, you can politely redirect to coworker in a private setting that have effect to working environment.
• You can control a situation by following the basic steps discussed to manage your feedback effectively.

Developing Your Feedback Skills

• There is a variety way to Develop your skills for what you improve, by identifying some who believe gives and receives feedback effectively and observe that person, also remember to follow all the steps to achieve goals.