Feedback is an essential part of professional and personal growth. In the workplace, it can act as a GPS that provides helpful and timely direction when needed the most.
What exactly constitutes feedback, though?
As Scott McGohan and Anne Marie Singleton share in this episode, providing feedback shouldn’t be about making the other person feel good about himself or herself. As well, it shouldn’t be a way to bring coworkers down.
Instead, feedback is about having open, honest conversation that allows others to grow, and provides you the ability to grow the relationship with that individual.
Technical skills might open doors but soft skills will maintain relationships. Scott and Anne Marie talk about the value of soft skills — listening, responding and recognizing nonverbal queues. Poor soft skills drive away clients, while good skills pull them in. And soft skills, like technical skills, can be taught.
Justin Howard, founder of Black Box Improv, talks with Scott and Anne Marie about training your brain to listen. Too often, he says, we’re more concerned about what we’re going to say that we don’t really hear what others are saying.