Hey this is Mike Ambassador Bruny with another solo episode of No More Reasonable Doubt. The show designed to empower young professionals of color to have more impact at work. We are especially interested in supporting folks in their first few years of work and those who have been at work for a while but just aren’t where they want to be.
Today we are going to talk about getting feedback or should I say receiving feedback. Listen in:
Your response to feedback should be “Thank you.” What you do with it afterwards is up to you.
I’ve had several feedback moments that have been pivotal in my career. Some that come to mind is when someone asked me if I noticed that I don’t capitalize my “i’s” in my email and another was when my boss noticed that I had a couple of typos and was confusing “suppose with supposed.”
There really isn’t any excuse for typos or mixing up words nowadays. My favorite tools to help eliminate Typos:
- Proof reading before you hit send
- Google.com
- Dictionary.com
Not all the feedback I received was around my email prowess or lack there of. Some left me baffled like the time when I was working for company and my manager told me that I intimidate the others because I sit quiet at meetings. That was feedback I had to chalk up to, “that really is your problem, not mine.” Actually, it was my problem because it effected the way I was perceived. I handled that by letting my manager know that I was quiet because I was a processor and taking it all in.
I’ve also received all kinds of positive feedback and I’m sure you have as well. Like the time I was told that people like me and I should consider going into sales. Or the time I was told the impact my presentation had on employees.
You are going to get feedback. Some is going to be good and others will not be so good. Either way you want the feedback so you can use it as data to continue to get better.
Three things you can do to take advantage of feedback at work
- Let people know that you are open to receiving feedback. It may sound like this, “Hey guys let me know if you see something that I could be doing better or differently so I can continue to grow.”
- Say, “Thank you,” process it and ask questions if you have any.
- Follow up with the people who gave you feedback to see how things are going. It may sound like this,“Hey Joan, you gave me some feedback the other day on X, I wanted to see if you’ve noticed any difference from the way I was doing it before? I value your feedback so keep it coming.”
Taking or not taking feedback from mean people is something a little bit different. You have to be able to separate the words used with the actual message they are trying to get across. If you don’t you may miss a valuable gift because the packaging and delivery frankly, sucks.
That’s all for now on feedback, don’t stop get it, get it.
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The words of the poet, Kanye West sums up our mission for young professionals of color, “They used to feel invisible, now they know they invincible.
Signing out, your host, Mike Ambassador Bruny, peace.