As business managers, we’re trained to provide feedback to employees, partners and customers. In our business culture, many have taken the polite way to praise others – be it regarding elements of a relationship, a product, a piece of work or even a meeting. These are beneficial skills that many of us have mastered.While it’s important to understand what IS there — one of the key skills you should master is assessing what ISN’T there. What questions aren’t being answered? What did you expect that you aren’t getting? Being able to articulate what isn’t there is as important as assessing the quality of what you DO see.
As business owners and leaders, we are always looking to be more successful - however you define success. By growing out side of your comfort zone and essentially “flipping things upside down” you will be providing feedback to others that is truly more than just reinforcing praise – it is constructive input that will continue to build your relationship and their output.
Here are a few tips for honing this skill:
1. Ask the right hard questions
This doesn’t mean be harsh or aggressive. It means asking what’s missing. This is not an accusation of another, but rather, an open dialogue to discover the pieces that will make a meeting, document, relationship be all that it can be.
2. Focus on you, then them
If you want to achieve success in providing effective feedback, you have to be able to first know what you’re bringing and not bringing to the table. By figuring out what your top 2 or 3 strengths are, and focusing only on those things, you become tremendously effective. But be honest about where you are weak. This will help provide a filter for your feedback to others. As a matter of course, surround yourself with experts in areas you are weak, which will help round out your business’ and personal effectiveness.
3. Believe in the “Law of Abundance”
Switch your perspective around when giving feedback. You can chose to come from the perspective of abundance, or the perspective of limited resources. As a business owner, if you believe in limited resources, you immediately limit what you can accomplish. Adopting a mentality of unlimited money, energy, and resources puts you in the mindset of finding a way to make things work and suggesting to others the same. When you do this, you and others often open your mind to new possibilities, and therefore find opportunities that you never thought possible.
Extremely successful business leaders take advantage of these tips, and find those around them start to do the same, by watching and learning. Soon, you’ll be creating a high-performance culture that might not have been possible before.
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