Every soul is potentially divine & all of us are born genius, but some people fail to recognize the genius in them and lead a mediocre life. We live in a competitive world where collective Performances drives success, happiness & emotional engagement with organizations. As the world gears up to scale new heights, Human Capital is taking centre stage & playing a pivotal role in ensuring greater value to the customers and enabling in creating stickiness.
People will not become great in their career unless they know where they are doing well, so they can keep on doing these things, and where they need to improve to deliver better results. For many employees it can be a case of ‘No news is good news’, as they only get to hear if things go wrong. Feedback is extremely critical for improving and perfecting performance, but if we do it in a constructive way it acts as a highly motivational & life changing exercise.
There are many ways of engaging & developing talent in organizations. Performance Management System is one of the most trusted ways an organization can measure & evaluate best performance practices and support future development of its people. Every professional needs to know where he/she stands with regard to their job performance. While every individual awaits his/her performance feedback on regular intervals, feedback is related to many facets of overall development such as Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, Attitude, Behavior, Value Match etc. It’s extremely challenging to eliminate subjectivity while giving feedback. Often there are differences between manager & subordinates due to focus on personality rather than Performance, Competence & Capability.
As a recipient of performance feedback it’s extremely critical to understand feedback in right perspective, there are few basic guidelines for performance appraisal they are:
1. It’s an opportunity to present your achievements, development areas in the right
perspective (Accurate self- assessment)
2. Evaluating Objectives Vs Measurement Criteria related to a job/project
3. Measuring Behavioral/Values in a professional environment
4. It’s an instrument which facilitates to receive both positive and negative feedback & takes
corrective action for self development
5. Appraisal also focuses on Competence Development & not merely Performance evaluation
People will not become great in their career unless they know where they are doing well, so they can keep on doing these things, and where they need to improve to deliver better results. For many employees it can be a case of ‘No news is good news’, as they only get to hear if things go wrong. Feedback is extremely critical for improving and perfecting performance, but if we do it in a constructive way it acts as a highly motivational & life changing exercise.
There are many ways of engaging & developing talent in organizations. Performance Management System is one of the most trusted ways an organization can measure & evaluate best performance practices and support future development of its people. Every professional needs to know where he/she stands with regard to their job performance. While every individual awaits his/her performance feedback on regular intervals, feedback is related to many facets of overall development such as Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, Attitude, Behavior, Value Match etc. It’s extremely challenging to eliminate subjectivity while giving feedback. Often there are differences between manager & subordinates due to focus on personality rather than Performance, Competence & Capability.
As a recipient of performance feedback it’s extremely critical to understand feedback in right perspective, there are few basic guidelines for performance appraisal they are:
1. It’s an opportunity to present your achievements, development areas in the right
perspective (Accurate self- assessment)
2. Evaluating Objectives Vs Measurement Criteria related to a job/project
3. Measuring Behavioral/Values in a professional environment
4. It’s an instrument which facilitates to receive both positive and negative feedback & takes
corrective action for self development
5. Appraisal also focuses on Competence Development & not merely Performance evaluation
But more often than not feedback is not accepted in the right sense by majority in the industry which leads to turbulence in working environment, disengagement & animosity among the supervisor & subordinates. Feedback can be positive, negative, neutral and development oriented. I believe we need to look at feedback as a Power Booster which will help us to realize strengths, development areas, potential & a journey ahead.
It’s extremely important to broaden our heart & Mind when we receive negative feedback as it can work completely counterproductive if we do not take it in our stride. I agree that feedback is a very subjective & person dependent. But if you look at high achievers in IT industry, sports, artists etc. they attribute their success to the constant feedback & its impact on their Performance. We have a choice of feeling completely dejected & let down by managers/supervisors about the Feedback they have given or absorb the data & introspect without any bias to see if feedback can really help you to up your competence levels & start making a difference to your own life.
I would like to share few tips on how to deal with negative/development oriented feedback:
1. Review complete feedback without reacting to what is being told/written.
· Our first instinct in such situations will be to get defensive & start counting reasons
· What is he/she concerned about? What are the key issues raised by supervisor?
· Why is he/she reacting this way & what could be the concerns?
2. On receiving feedback, do not look at the person but focus on the role
· Do not mix your identity with career, instead focus on role & refer feedback on
performance of that role
3. Be comfortable with criticism & take it in a constructive way, as it is focused on you’re role
and not your personality
· When criticized, it’s not easy to absorb, but do not take it personally. You need to see
things in perspective
4. In a professional career, there will be many Ups & DOWNs, but treat feedback as a tool
for self transformation. Feedback is the Breakfast of champions.
· It’s extremely critical to know that career is a journey & not a destination. We need to
learn & enjoy every experience.
5. Lets own up mistakes & be willing to learn from every experience
· It takes a lion heart to accept our mistakes and work on improving our mistakes. Set a
self discipline of not to repeat any mistakes. This is a journey towards growth
6. Know that “Man the maker of his destiny”
· Our first instinct in such situations will be to get defensive & start counting reasons
· What is he/she concerned about? What are the key issues raised by supervisor?
· Why is he/she reacting this way & what could be the concerns?
2. On receiving feedback, do not look at the person but focus on the role
· Do not mix your identity with career, instead focus on role & refer feedback on
performance of that role
3. Be comfortable with criticism & take it in a constructive way, as it is focused on you’re role
and not your personality
· When criticized, it’s not easy to absorb, but do not take it personally. You need to see
things in perspective
4. In a professional career, there will be many Ups & DOWNs, but treat feedback as a tool
for self transformation. Feedback is the Breakfast of champions.
· It’s extremely critical to know that career is a journey & not a destination. We need to
learn & enjoy every experience.
5. Lets own up mistakes & be willing to learn from every experience
· It takes a lion heart to accept our mistakes and work on improving our mistakes. Set a
self discipline of not to repeat any mistakes. This is a journey towards growth
6. Know that “Man the maker of his destiny”
We are the masters of our life, we must take charge, create interventions to transform our future & redefine our destinyThe above points are purely based on my personal/professional experience in the industry & hope these learning will be helpful in dealing with performance feedback. It’s not easy to handle feedback but if we learn the art of dealing with it, it’ll go a long way in transforming our lives.
Good Luck at God Speed!
