How to Respond to Feedback in the Workplace
Author:
Hannah Allan
Hannah Allan is Yipiyap’s Head of Colleague Support and a member of the Yipiyap Leadership Team.
Every week our franchisee and regional director, Richard Edge, curates our guide to professional development, Creating Giants, which lands with a bump in our tutors inboxes. Each issue is packed full of a whole host of ideas, hints, and tips to ensure that come July, our tutors are better equipped to navigate the professional world.
Recently our Head of Colleague Support, Hannah Allan, contributed with a piece on feedback and importantly, how to respond to it.
How to respond to feedback at work
As your year with us draws to a close I am hopeful that one or two of you are reflecting at this point on all you have learnt both from a professional and personal perspective. Many of you I am sure will have received feedback since September be that from your placement school or college and indeed the Leadership Team at Yipiyap.
Feedback can often have negative connotations but all too often feedback is also given on the positives you deliver. How you receive, respond, and take on board this feedback I believe is crucial to your own personal development.
How to respond to positive feedback
I always remember being told when I was a younger (ahem!) adult, to receive positive feedback or complements with grace. An easy way to put this into some context for you is whenever I was given a complement I would always bat it back to the giver; “this old thing? I’ve had it for years!” and “I don’t feel like that! I feel like I’ve been dragged through a hedge backwards today!” etc etc etc. I think you get my drift! So next time you’re paid a complement or given some glowing feedback on the work you are doing, accept it with grace (and a thank you!).
I’ve dealt with positive feedback; how about the not so positive, the negative feedback? A much trickier sea to navigate.
How to respond to negative feedback
Receiving negative feedback that you are aware of, and perhaps more importantly acknowledge, is the easier path. This already shows that you are mature and recognise (dare I say) your weaknesses and areas for improvement. The onwards journey from here is a smoother one, one of collaboration, and working together with your line manager to improve those areas where you both know adjustments can be made.
The trickier area is when receiving negative feedback is a surprise to the recipient, they were unaware of their failings, and crucially they disagree with it. More often than not the person giving the negative feedback will be in a position of seniority to you, more able in their field, with months if not years of experience to back them up. This feedback will be coming from a good place, a want and a desire to make you the best you can be in your role. Whilst your immediate reaction may be of heightened emotions, anger perhaps, and confusion; it is crucial to listen carefully and try to digest and make sense of what is being said. This is where the reflecting comes into play that I mentioned at the start.
Come away from that meeting with clarity on where you are going wrong and guidance as to how to correct the situation but I would then advise you to revisit that feedback once again with the giver. Reflection is crucial, it helps you assimilate what you have heard, process it, and hopefully understand, and importantly, recognise and agree with it.
So, remember to accept positive feedback with good grace and humility. And negative feedback that you don’t agree with? Nine times out of ten this feedback will be coming from a good place, given to you to help you grow and develop. The key is how you work through the feedback and have the self-awareness to accept it and hopefully make the necessary improvements.