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Don't Guess About Feedback

2024-04-14 - Cameron Harder-Hutton


Feedback can be hard to receive. If you've never been on the other side, you should know it's hard to give, too.

But, good feedback is the most potent catalyst to growth.

If you want to make the most of the feedback you get, remember:

  • Understand the behaviours that need improvement
  • Go deeper until it's actionable
  • Close the loop as soon as you can

Understand the behaviours that need improvement

Don't settle for feedback you don't understand. If it doesn't make sense, ask for concrete examples. This is a harmless sentence no matter who is giving you feedback and I've used it tens of times in my career:

"That makes sense, but I want to be 100% sure we're on the same page. Can you give me a concrete example of what you mean?"

Sometimes the feedback is lazy. Most of the time you just have different perspectives. Don't guess the answer.

Go deeper until it's actionable

You now understand the behaviour that needs improvement. You can probably imagine how to improve it, but don't guess. Instead ask:

"That makes sense. In your opinion, what's the best way to approach that situation?"

Close the loop as soon as you can

Execute the feedback, and let the feedback provider know. This has two benefits:

  1. People who give you feedback are generally the people who decide your performance - don't let them guess whether you're good at taking feedback or not.
  2. People who give you feedback will usually only give you 1-2 things at a time (read: feedback is hard to give). So you can get more feedback (read: feedback is the most potent catalyst to growth).

It can seem like you're walking a fine line with bragging here. I've been mentored by a lot of great engineers who reiterate that feedback is a gift. So, when you've executed on the feedback, thank the person for the gift. Loop closed.

"I was thinking about your feedback today when doing X. Decided do Y as well/instead. That's much better, thank you!"

Note: the more experienced you are, the longer it can take to close the loop on feedback. The longer it's been, the more context you should give when you close the loop.


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