How good are you at receiving feedback?

We all need to receive feedback on how we're doing at work from time to time. It's a way to make sure that we constantly improve our performance and are delivering our best.

It may take time for us all to realise that receiving feedback should be a positive experience. The feedback that you receive should be actionable, non-judgemental and supportive, with a clear end goal.

Sometimes that feedback can be difficult to hear. Below are some tips to help you when you're receiving feedback.

If you don’t agree with feedback that you receive, you should be prepared to say so, but you must be able to do this without getting defensive or angry. Please also see guidance on assertiveness for more information.

Please refer to radical candor to help you to understand our approach to giving and receiving feedback.

Respond, don't React

If you find yourself feeling strong emotions during a feedback interaction it can be hard to remain positive. Take a deep breath, pause and think. Your feelings and emotions are likely to be entirely valid; however you need to make sure tht those thoughts and feelings don't drive your behaviour.

Sometimes it can be best to say nothing, ask for some time to reflect and collect your thoughts before responding.

Separate

When you are receiving feedback try to separate your emotions from the situation.  It’s important that you don’t let feedback on your performance feel like a judgement on you as an individual.  Remember that you should always be willing to improve your performance at work to make sure that you are giving your best to the organisation.

Take the feedback on board and reflect upon it, think about how you can change.

Appreciate

Think about and appreciate the effort that goes in to offering you feedback.  Your line manager is probably just as nervous as you, remember that they are sharing feedback with you because they care about your performance and the success of your team or academy.