Influencing your boss for feedback
I was conducting the second module of feedback skills for a group of 17 project managers yesterday and while discussing the importance of feedback in one's growth, a participant asked me an important question that contributed to everyone's learning.
He said: "Sree, our bosses are always busy. Then how do we go and ask them for regular feedback? Any suggestions?"
I had just shared with them two important messages from Gallup's findings:
First: Employees who receive daily meaningful feedback based on their strengths are 3 times more likely to be engaged at their work than those who receive it once or less a year.
Second: Employees who receive weekly feedback from their managers are 3.2 times more likely to strongly agree that they are motivated to do their best at work.
I thought about his question for a moment and then shared the following idea with the whole group:
I said to him to go and ask his boss: "Boss, would you want me to keep making and repeating mistakes all through the year or just once? And then would you want to share all my mistakes at the end of the year review discussion leading to mutual heart burn or keep sharing feedback on an ongoing basis?"
The group said that their bosses would invariably get curious and say that they wouldn't want their team members to repeat any mistakes.
I then shared with them the following quote from Daniel Pink: "There is no way to get better at something you hear only once a year."
On Monday, I would be showing them an excellent movie clip on what is meant by giving feedback to people that is meaningful and based on their strengths.
By the way, how many of us are paying attention to the constant feedback our body is giving us through the bio-feedback mechanism?
And what is it telling us about our health and performance at work?
Is it healthy and balanced or is it inviting us to operate from quadrant 1 and 2 of Stephen Covey's time management matrix?
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