Got feedback? Save it. Learn from it.
Often we get feedback and it isn't used to our advantage. Let's change that.
You’ve gotten some feedback?
Put it to use. No matter what kind of feedback, you want to use it to your advantage. Trying to get in the habit of logging it so you can look back on it later will serve more purposes than you can count.
But first, the basics. You’ll want to make sure to save:
Who sent it - keep any contact info you can, both work related and personal if you have it.
When they sent it - this will become important as your career goes on. It’s really easy to forget the day-to-day, the little things.
What it relates to: a company, big project, general work.
What type it is - Positive or not-to-positive. Is it constructive or not?
Important: save this OUTSIDE of any corporate walls. Text yourself the basics on it or start a basic Google Doc. Keep your own files, if you have to remove certain information for privacy or security purposes, do so. Whatever you’d be able to say to someone outside of the know, that’s what you can most safely keep. Whatever you feel comfortable saving that doesn’t go against any policies, save that.
Save deep enough feedback to dip your toes into
The types of feedback I’d pull into a file and recommend others do the same for go beyond a polite ‘thank you’ at the end of a communication or negative feedback without detail.
The types of things I’d keep would be:
If it’s not constructive, how can you learn from it when giving feedback to others?
Someone has specifics about something you did where it’s clear it took them more than 10 seconds to say
You ended a project or contract and got a summary of the work, and a bit of gratitude was included
Something about the gratitude was different than the ‘norm’, perhaps it explained how they appreciated your approach or communication style, something that might light up a inspiration down the road
Organizing feedback
Keeping track of these things really depends on your particular setup. Some people can’t forward emails from work to a personal email so you might have to get creative.
Some suggestions would be:
If you can’t forward email or other items, take what useable/non-confidential parts of it you can. Think about it as if you were to talk to someone outside the workplace, what would you be ok/approved/comfortable saying about it? Use that.
Text yourself the useable parts
Keep a document widget on your phone where you can easily pop in and put in date, person, and the content
If you can’t do either of these things because of phone usage, consider keeping a notepad with ONLY that info on it. Nothing else. That way when you leave that role you will absolutely know it’s safe to leave the building
If you can forward emails or other things:
If you have the ability to setup widgets in your email (like Outlook, etc.) go ahead and setup a feedback button so you can auto-send and tag your items.
Setup a filter on your work email when something is tagged feedback or to auto send to your personal email and insert #feedback either in the content or the subject line.
Setup a filter on your personal email to clean up your feedback file automatically. Have the filter set so anything with #feedback in the content (which you can put in there when you forward) tags it and files it away.
Building habits like organizing feedback help in the long term to understand the value you bring, how you learn, and how you take feedback regardless of the sentiment. The biggest thing is to just get started saving it in a way that’s easiest for you to do on the fly, and act on.
Check out this video on 5 Words That Will Improve Your Ability to Receive Feedback by Dr. John Izzo before going further.
There’s some true gold in here.
Good feedback? Amazing.
Put it in a Smile File. Some call it a Thank You File. This is the positive stuff. The reason to separate the positive from the negative is you can dive into the positive stuff when you need a little uplift: after a bad day, a layoff, or getting negative feedback.
The things you’ll want to make sure to do here after you save it are:
Be sure to thank them as quickly as you can.
Make sure you are connected with that person on LinkedIn
Perhaps ask if that person can leave you a recommendation on LinkedIn if it makes sense
If the feedback encompasses a large project, client, or body of work, ask if they wouldn’t mind be a reference for you if/when the time comes.
Log how it made you feel. Was there something about it that was really useful? Is there anything in the way the feedback was given you’d like to emulate or learn how to do? This is where growth can happen in how to give great feedback to others.
Not great feedback? Don’t let it go to waste. Learn from it.
I’m a fan of the quote “Never let a crisis go to waste”. Not saying spin everything to be toxically positive, but the not-so-great feedback can also be a gift.
It may not feel like it at the time, so it is important to take a breath, a walk, pet a dog, step away from things. No one wants to do a bad job, but sometimes communications get crossed, expectations aren’t met.
What can you do to make small changes in your own approach? Sometimes there’s nothing, but often there’s even something small. Even if there’s no fault of your own at all.
The things you’ll want to make sure to do here after you save it are:
Be sure to thank them as quickly as you can when you can do it kindly. If that takes a few days, so be it. Don’t do it in anger or when emotions are high.
Ask them if you can follow up with some ideas on how to improve, if it makes sense. It might not make sense. That’s why it’s important to take a bit to consider your reaction.
Take a few minutes, a few hours, maybe even days, to process what’s being said in the feedback. None of this is easy, and you might want to do it in small doses because it’s really uncomfortable sometimes. Taking hard feedback is a skill. It hurts, and it takes energy to look at it all differently when you put in so much effort and thought. That’s all ok. The fact that you are trying to look at it differently is an amazing start.
Can you ask others what they might have seen so you can get more insight?
Is there a way you can remove your own emotions and look at the situation as if you were an outside observer?
Are there any similarities to what happened you might have seen in the past?
Even if you feel like you did everything right, consider if you might have been able to do things like:
Overcommunicate. Sometimes communicating in a number of different ways helps people understand a message. It’s better to overcommunicate and annoy rather than under communicate and breakdown trust.
Bring people into a situation sooner. Sometimes people want to have things really buttoned up before ‘showing’ the work. At times, showing things while still in concept mode can save a lot of time, and help people feel bought into the solution.
After you’ve done this, go back to your feedback log and write anything down that you found of value. Things you might want to change or focus on.
This is the type of work that people want to know about. They even ask in interviews sometimes “tell me about a time you got some hard feedback, what did you do?”
Overall, understanding how to take feedback and how to learn from it is a true level-up. How you take feedback, give feedback, and learn from it can be an example to others and build stronger teams, relationships, and communities.
On this area of my Limitless Ledger Substack for 'Go Kit’, I’m putting together a ton of notes and ways to approach how to start and continue to build your own kit. It’s these essentials that help people pivot for whatever comes in their career and growth path.
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