More on feedback..

Often helping someone improve the effectiveness of their coaching requires them to change how they think. For me this is never more relevant than in how they approach feedback. For example I think there is a world of difference between someone who would…

“Like to be better at giving feedback”.

… as opposed to…

“Wanting to be more effective at helping someone generate useful feedback”.

Let me bring this example to life. Imagine you’ve noticed that how one of your colleagues interacts in meetings adversely impacts the performance of another member of the team. Do you think about this challenge as…

“How can I effectively give them my feedback on this?”

… or…

“How can I help them to identify this as an area they need to work on?”

I know trying to get someone to recognise the impact of their behaviour without you having to point it out is a more time-consuming way to think about feedback (and may not always be appropriate). But I also know that as people become expert at what they do or need to work more autonomously, then being able to self-generate feedback becomes really crucial in identifying how they can continue to grow their skills over the long haul.

So if self-generation is the endgame for effective feedback then building your ability to help someone do this NOW seems to me like a good use of time

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