A different take on feedback and learning!

Recently, I made a presentation to a group of professionals. After I finished, a few people complimented me on the content and my presentation style. At first, I felt flattered and grateful, but I was left with a nagging feeling that I was not at my best and I missed my mark. On reflecting deeper, I realized that I had not intuitively gauged the audience mood and I was too keen to go through my programmed presentation to accommodate for the reality of the situation. So, while it was an OK presentation, it was not at the level ‘it could have been’. An opportunity lost on one hand, but a valuable insight gained on the other.

Feedback is such an important part of a person’s learning. It is the lifeblood a person’s personal and professional growth. No feedback, no learning…only boring, mechanized apathy!

I do want to challenge our notion of how to obtain feedback, though. Most of us assume feedback comes from the outside: from our bosses, our peers, colleagues or other members including family. Organizations have complete systems that carefully codify performance and feedback and present it to employees. A plethora of literature is available on the power of such external feedback and the debate on the format, methodology, frequency rages in every forum, literature and organization.

There are two additional sources of feedback that’s often underleveraged. One is feedback from the work content itself. In some jobs such feedback is easily available. For instance, a surgeon will know how the surgery went based on how stable or unstable the patient’s parameters are. Number of defects in making something, or number of units made, etc. all provide good guidance of how an activity is taking place on the shop floor. Six sigma measures, or lean practices, NPS scores and agile practices automatically build measure points that allows an individual or a group to check themselves against established norms, benchmarks, etc. More recently, customer testimonials like Yelp! Glassdoor, etc. also allow for feedback on the quality of work that someone/ or some firm produces. Some may even argue that the share price is a good feedback indicator at an overall organizational level and is direct feedback to the CEO! If the measures are not whimsical, such feedback could be immediate, objective, self-assessing and even motivational.

A third, and even more interesting feedback source is from one’s own personal definition of what ideal performance is. One’s own standards. One’s own challenge. Less of an external source, and more of an internal gauge of a job well done. This is what drives many athletes. When a person sets their focus and attention on a challenge, they set for themselves, their entire concentration is on fine tuning themselves till they can meet that challenge. It may be something simple- reading a book a week, meeting and greeting everyone in the party (a challenge for an introvert), beating the 4 minute mile barrier, or launching a product that is going to define the market place, making the quarter, ensure the software release by 12:00 pm on Thursday….and so on. When a person, a group or an organization resolves to take on a challenge (not just a goal, but a challenge), and creates a ‘action feedback’ system to get there, the intentionality, the intensity, the feedback loop itself creates the groundswell of focus to get to the finish point. More than anything else, it allows us to learn, grown and reach our optimal potential because we use ourselves as objects of study and learning.

At an individual level, my small narrative at the beginning of this blog will tell you that despite what the external world tells me in terms of my presentation skills, I have some ways to go and need to continue to fine tune to be even better.

Fortunately, there is a new science and a toolkit that allows us to incorporate this as skillset.

Professor Hitendra Wadhwa, from the Columbia Business School, and the founder for Institute of Personal Leadership is doing a free Webinar on this subject on the 10th of September. The Webinar is titled, :Winning in the game of Leadership: Tennis court to the Boardroom”, and he will be talking about the concept of deliberate practice and behavior change models that allow us to create and reach our own full potential.

I am enclosing the link to the webinar and would urge you to enroll and join the global discussion. Feel free to invite others too. I guarantee it will be a great learning experience for anyone who wishes to invest in their quest for excellence. In full disclosure, I am associated with Prof Wadhwa and the Institute of Personal Leadership.

How the masters of the tennis court can help us become masters of the boardroom. (Hint: Skills are not just built in a workshop.) Learn more: https://bit.ly/2Zb0mLw