The Courage To Learn From Others

Receiving feedback that stings is always difficult. None of us wants a scarlet letter on us regarding our behavior.

In my previous blog post, I spoke about the value of feedback and the gift it actually is, providing you hold it as such. One of the best ways to begin to neutralize feedback like this is to meet with the stakeholders who provided it. I know you’re saying, you can’t be serious?

I am. It takes some courage. And they’re unlikely to give you a medal for it. But, you’ll reap rewards in the long run.

Be Willing to Listen

Just the overture alone of meeting with certain execs and asking them how you can augment your behavior sends a profound message of humility and desire to change. Just think to yourself, “I wonder if they could do this when their time comes?” At the very least, you are a setting a good example to your directs…which is what leaders should do, right?

Be Willing to Change

There are two main reasons why you should embrace the feedback and get more of it directly from the sources:

One, you’ll learn what is really important to them and how you “show up” to them now. This will be the baseline upon which you begin altering your behavior to align with their expectations.

Two, you’ll get a window into certain actions you can take that may, at first seem risky, but are really no more than acknowledging a current behavior you’ve manifested and substituting this behavior with another.

Just trying it sends a great message of sincere desire to get in lock-step with the execs.

Try it the next time you get some not-so-great feedback and let me know how it goes.