How to Deliver Feedback Effectively

Last week one of my clients contacted me after delivering a speech at a conference. She was disappointed that a fellow speaker came up to her immediately after she came off stage saying she had ‘lost the audience’ and ‘the content was not relevant to the audience’… Understandably she was upset by this and I was too. Personally, I believe the fellow speaker was very unprofessional.??

Please don't get me wrong: feedback is a very useful part of professional development at all levels of your career.? However, there is a time and place for feedback. Immediately after you come off stage having spoken you have a drop of adrenaline and emotionally you're in quite a vulnerable place. Now a few people really want to have feedback from trusted people straight away. I always make a point of saying to people when they have spoken “Well done that was great”. If people want feedback from me at another stage then that's absolutely fine and they can approach and ask me. Not everybody wants feedback. But some people feel it is okay to give feedback whether they have been asked or not. Please don’t!

?If we all go up to people giving constructive feedback, it might not be the right time or place, AND you might not have built up trust with them to go into more detail.

In addition to timing, we should always think of the environment. If it is public feedback where others can listen in or see the feedback, it is inappropriate unless this is a safe public environment. I used the example of my previous profession as a singer where we would do a scene and then afterwards there would be feedback from the director but this was within the context of the development.

Something I discovered quite early on when as a performer was the ability for self-evaluation. So often we are reliant on other people giving us feedback. If nobody gives us feedback that can result in us feeling the “walk of shame moment” where no one wants to give us feedback. Is almost as bad as someone coming up and being very critical!?

But a US company I worked with last year relied TOTALLY on feedback, to the point that no one had their own opinion or ability to self-evaluate because they were so used to a senior person ‘giving them feedback’ before self-reflection.

If you are able to build self-evaluation techniques, you can celebrate success and focus on areas to focus on for next time. It helps with your resilience and self-development.?

This is a skill that I discovered when working with a sports psychologist who had worked with Olympic athletes but was now focusing on operatic performers. Of course, the difference between a business owner and executive and a sports person is that sports people win or lose:? they can compare timings and results more immediately than businesses. But it is interesting that when I've attended sports events in the last couple of years there is an awful lot of coaching. So athletes are relying on feedback rather than their own self-evaluation. However, self-evaluation is very useful because you might not always have somebody there to be able to support you.

These techniques are something that I offer to my one-to-one coaching clients but also within some master classes. If clients would like this included in addition to delivering feedback effectively, I am very happy to include this in specific courses.

These are also part of the ‘Having difficult conversations’ masterclass and workshop.

If you would be interested in either having one-to-one coaching on these topics or to have a masterclass please contact us or arrange a call: https://link.lemonadeplan.com/widget/appointment/superstarcommunicator/15m-chat

We are always happy to develop people’s skills in these areas.

Thank you. I really appreciate you reading this newsletter. You can receive your copy of the newsletter in your inbox; you can register here to receive it. Thank you so much for reading this newsletter; for engaging in the discussion. If you are not subscribed and want to read it,?click here. ?

Until next time, take care.

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Best wishes,

Susan Heaton-Wright