Making feedback actionable!

Feedback is truly a gift, and its impact can be more profound than most people realize. After spending a few years in the professional world, I’ve come to fully appreciate just how important it is—and honestly, I wish someone had told me this sooner.

I’ve noticed two common challenges when it comes to feedback:

1. People don’t actively seek feedback: Many of us wait for our scheduled 1-on-1 meetings with our managers, missing out on valuable input that could help us grow faster.
2. People don’t track their feedback: Even when we do receive it, we often fail to keep a record or make it a priority to act on it.

One thing I’ve learned is that how you handle feedback reveals how coachable you are—and trust me, everyone wants to work with someone who’s open to learning and improving.

Realizing the power of feedback, I’ve spent time reflecting on how we should approach it. I’m sharing my insights here, hoping that others, especially newer professionals, can avoid the mistakes I made and embrace feedback early in their careers.

Why should you even take feedback?

1. To identify what your strengths and weaknesses are.

2. To create a personal brand.

Who to ask for feedback?

1. Gather feedback from peers whom you have worked on at least one project. It is critical because it helps people share experience-led observations, and not hearsay, making feedback more constructive and actionable.
2. Do not only ask from your managers but anyone you work with, including stakeholders, reporters, clients, etc. as it gives a holistic view.

When should you ask for feedback?

There is no timeline! Ask whenever you finish a project, or in general, in a defined frequency. Keeping feedback periodic (say every month) help you:

1. Track actions on the feedback
2. Pushes you to priortise
3. Keep yourself accountable
4. Track growth
5. Create an influence -> By sharing actions taken, and creating a feedback (Growth) loop for yourself.

PS: Be shameless, ask for it! Shows initiative, and willingness to learn.

How should you ask for feedback?

Pre:

1. Request for feedback. Ensure you share the intent and importance of the feedback for you, so that the other person takes it seriously too.
2. Allow some time, so that the person can come prepared.
3. Always take feedback, in a 1-1, formal setup only. Keep a notepad/laptop to take notes.
4. Create/Maintain a tracker: Update observations, reflections, and actions taken, before the call. Know what you are seeking out of the call, be selfish, but value others' time.

During:

1. Set the agenda and tone of the call. Ask for both strengths and weaknesses.

2. Your objective for the call is to only listen, understand, and note. Do not even think about clarifying anything or provide justifications for any feedback. Learning your weaknesses, leads to an emotional mindset, which leads to wrong judgements and reactions.

Instead, practice active listening! Ask questions to understand the root cause. Try to make a note of a scenario when they experienced the same, as it can help you reflect better.

3. Ask for the frequency of occurrence and understand the impact of the feedback, as it can help you prioritise by learning it's critical nature.

4. Always ask for inputs to how they recommend you to work on it. This makes the feedback session, actionable for you.

Note: Asking clarifying questions/actionables makes the person reflect more, and often, might come to a conclusion that the point might not be as critical/one-off/comes with experience.

5. Closure of the call: Thank the person for their time, and let them know that you will reflect on these, and get back to seek their guidance

Post:

Sit on the same day to reflect on the feedback. Make a note of:

1. Reasons for the feedback
2. Evaluate criticality basis impact, frequency, relevance. Make a note of your interest, and prioritise accordingly.
3. Research, read, ask -> Define feasible actionables for you to work on.

This does not end here!

Schedule another call with the person you got the feedback from. Why?

Now is the time for clarifications/ justifications, as now, you have taken the time to reflect and come with value-added points. The objective of the second call is to share reflections, get inputs again, and validate your prioritisation and actionable.

Next Steps? Prioritise your growth, take actions!

Use a tracker to keep yourself in check. Schedule another call with the person next month. Share the actions you took to work on it, and ask if they have observed any improvements.

As bias as we humans are, we will likely create a positive image, and that builds your personal brand!

Sharing a framework I use to track my feedback and action on them.

Hope this helps!