Originally I toyed with a number of titles for this article; “Feedback junkie”, “Addicted to feedback” or “Feedback is for life … not just for Christmas”. Hopefully this gives you an idea of where I'm going.
Over my career I have become more and more comfortable with accepting (and giving) feedback. So much so, that now I actively seek it out.
Now, have I always been receptive to feedback? No. You’d only need to talk to some of my previous managers to dispel that myth.
Will I always accept feedback without comment? Unlikely. The beauty of feedback is that it opens a dialogue and allows for a conversation. If I believe the feedback to be incorrect, I have an opportunity to address it. It certainly wouldn't be the first time that different perceptions of the same event occur. But without knowing about it, how could I ever have addressed it?
Am I just needy and/ or looking for validation? Maybe. Most (I originally put all) of us want to be liked – but this goes deeper than this. As a professional, it is important for me that I deliver the best that I can. As a contractor, it is almost a prerequisite to be producing more benefit than I cost.
Anyone that knows me, knows that I work hard and put a lot of effort into everything I do – however if that effort is into the wrong thing for the client, then we are both losing. The client is getting a poor ROI and I'm losing a great opportunity to build on my reputation & future work. This is why feedback is so important.
When employed by a new organisation, we will have all generally gone through some form of probation process. That process is intended to allow us and the organisation to ensure that we are appropriate for the role.
Some of the processes I've been through have been excellent – providing clear objectives with frequent review to assess achievement to those objectives (through feedback).
Others have been less structured – my “favourite” being:
“if you've not be called in for a meeting, then you've passed probation”.
At the time I thought that was great and was genuinely happy with that response. If however there had been a problem, what opportunity did this give me address any feedback?
So why the change in attitude to feedback;
For those that don’t know me, I work in software development and have done for over 20 years. During that time there have been fundamental shifts in improving feedback cycles.
We have automated testing (be they unit tests, integration tests, etc); one of the biggest drivers for this is to get feedback to the developer quicker. Why? The cost to fix a software bug grows the further it gets from the developer.
If a developer knows she has a bug an hour after creating it, her mind-set is still on that work and generally can reason out the problem fairly quickly.
If the bug isn't found until 2 weeks later as part of testing, it will considerably more difficult for her to remember the context in which she had been working – assuming the same developer is even available. You've introduced the effort for the tester to document, raise and re-test the bug once fixed – on top of the extra effort required by the developer.
If the bug makes into it production, you now have all the original costs of fixing the bug and the brand damage costs you've incurred with your customer.
Not difficult to see why software development has moved to quicker and quicker feedback loops.
The same is true of the agile movement. The agile movement has grown in popularity not just within software, but within the larger operation context because it focuses on experiments measured on empirical values – that feedback then establishes the success of the experiment – ultimately a positive impact = do more of it, a negative impact = stop doing it.
This is all backed by well established scientific process – have a theory, build a test, run the test, measure the results and evolve your theory.
So, why wouldn't you want the same for your professional career?
Do you want to be spending time and effort when it isn't being recognised?
And for an added benefit, you’ll make your managers life so much easier. One tasks that so many managers fail at is the delivering of feedback (let alone valuable feedback) – and you've just made their life that little bit easier. It’s a win for everyone.
Thanks you for reading. I look forward to your feedback.