Why is positive feedback effective for women leaders?

This month I’m going to be sharing a few thoughts and tips on positive feedback.

We often hear the word feedback and it makes us shudder – oh no what’s coming …. This is going to be difficult, probably some sort of criticism.

As humans we have a tendency to focus on what's gone wrong and what we need to improve.? But how about refocusing on the positive, recognising your strengths and really using those?

Stop focusing on the negative and areas for improvement – instead, we need to focus more on the positive feedback, what’s gone well, what we see as people's strengths – how much better would we feel about ourselves if we did this I wonder?

Think for a moment how you receive positive comments in your life – are you a bit embarrassed?

Does it make you uncomfortable?

We often just brush them off.

Contrast that with how easily we can get hung up when someone makes a careless, throw away, negative remark!

We can really take that to heart and ruminate on it for days.

Recognising and really understanding your strengths and natural talents means that you can use them to your full advantage, typically we’re happier and more successful in our work when it plays to our strengths. And it’s so hard to continually work on those areas to improve ourselves isn’t it?

Remember as a child how proud you were of yourself for those gold stars at school, think about how we reinforce the positives to our children, this most definitely fades as we grow up into adults.

So here’s a couple of ideas for reinforcing the positives:

? If someone compliments you, acknowledge it with thanks, let yourself absorb it for a moment – it might be a compliment about your outfit or a congratulations for a job well done. Stop and let it sink in, feel good about it instead of brushing it off

? Ask close colleagues to describe you at your best – what do they say? I know it’s going to feel really cringey but everyone I know who has done it says it was great to hear and made them feel good. Go on I dare you ??

?Now write down those compliments and the description of you at your best and when you need a little boost go back and read through them.

? Sometimes when times are challenging, maybe you’re not feeling ‘good enough’ one day, remind yourself of your what you’re good at, go back to what you’ve written down. We have lots of strengths and might be able to use them to help us through the tough times.

A lot of the coaching work I do with my clients incorporates giving and receiving feedback. It’s also part of the sessions in my Achieve Your Potential programme - reinforcement and how we ensure we support one another with positive feedback.

I hope that’s been helpful for you today.

You’ll find more blogs and videos on topics impacting women leaders, such as confidence, making time for your development, tips on self-care and giving yourself a pat on the back, on my website and You Tube channel.

As always if you’re looking for more individual support please do get in touch. I’m always happy to chat about the work I do to help more women become senior leaders.

You can also subscribe to Lisa’s Latest newsletter for more tips and practical advice for women leaders here.

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