The Power of Asking for Feedback at Work
Do you ask for feedback at work? I know, I know, it’s not an easy thing to do! And of course when most of us (myself included) ask for feedback, secretly aren’t we all hoping to just hear the “good stuff”? But if you want to to be seen as a leader in your workplace and a leader on your team, or if you want to improve your chances of career success, learning to ask and accept feedback is critical!
How to Ask for Feedback at Work (Video Transcript)
I write in my book, The Jerk-Free Workplace, that very often when we ask for feedback at work of a colleague, of our boss, of our employees, very often we’re just hoping to hear the good stuff, right? We just want to hear how fabulous that presentation was! But then all of a sudden they’re giving us real honest feedback and we’re like, “Okay, you can stop with the feedback now, I just thought you were going to say nice things about me.”
So there are some people that fall into that camp, for sure, and we all have from time to time. However, is that the reality?
A survey, in fact, from the consulting firm, Zenger Folkman, found that by a three-to-one margin employees believe that corrective feedback is far more important in terms of improving their performance than a hundred percent positive feedback. In fact, an astounding 92% of employees felt that corrective, even negative feedback, if delivered in the right way, was critical in terms of them improving their performance.
And a survey from Officevibe, in fact, found that 62% of employees value getting feedback from their colleagues. And 82% of employees in their survey actually wished they were getting more feedback. There’s also studies that suggest that when people ask for feedback at work, the other people, the other coworkers, tend to view those people as being more of a leader at work and they tend to trust them more when they ask for feedback.
Netflix is a huge believer in the power of open and honest conversation and communication, and in the power of feedback, that is in fact one of their keys to their success within their culture. In fact, they encourage employees to ask this rather gulp-inducing, difficult question of their bosses:”If I was thinking of leaving Netflix, how hard would you fight to keep me?” And then employees will get a very honest answer. Now, I get that’s a pretty challenging, difficult conversation to have perhaps for many of us – that’s a truly tough question to ask our boss – but the only way often to get honest feedback is to ask for honest feedback. The only way to be viewed as a leader at work and improve as a leader at work is to ask for honest feedback.
The executive leadership coach, Marshall Goldsmith, for example, suggests that when asking for feedback you should phrase it in the form of asking for advice and ask questions like, “How can I do better?” Or, “How can I be a better leader on the team?” And Goldsmith suggests that the most effective way to ask for feedback is to make sure you are focusing the conversation on the future so make it future-focused, make it issue-focused so it’s not about personality differences, and present your question in such a way that makes it clear that you really are willing to change for the better; you really are open to getting the feedback.
One very simple, effective question that I encourage people to ask is simply this. “What is one small thing I should start doing that would improve my performance at work, or that would help everybody on the team? What is one small thing I should stop doing that would help improve my performance and help me work better with everyone on the team.”
And what about you? Do you ask for feedback at work? What questions have worked well for you? What has your experience been when you’ve asked for feedback at work? Please leave your ideas, your comments, in the comment box below, and if you haven’t yet subscribed to Inspiring Workplaces, please hit the subscribe button, join our growing community as we talk about inspiring workplace cultures that rock.
Michael Kerr is a Canadian Hall of fame business speaker who speaks on inspiring workplace cultures, inspiring leadership and businesses that put humor to work to laugh all the way to the bank. He is the author of 8 books, including The Humor Advantage and The Jerk-Free Workplace.
