Sharing Feedback
Over the past couple of months, I’ve had the privilege to lead a number of in-person leadership development and team events with clients. Participants have shared feedback along the lines of:
“Our day together was my favorite day ever at work in 2022.”
—M, participant from a 3-hour team retreat in Madison (September 2022)
“Your stuff hits home and sometimes hits home hard. Quite honestly, you push me to be better.”
—K, participant from a 2-day team workshop in Northwestern Wisconsin (October 2022)
“Thank you again for coming to our organization and leaving a huge impact on everyone in the room.”
—J, participant from a 2-day team workshop in Northwestern Wisconsin (October 2022)
“Thank you for an amazing session today! I truly am motivated/refreshed after your sessions. Not to mention, so many so many takeaways, simple takeaways to implement. THANK YOU!”
—H, participant from a 2-day team workshop in Northwestern Wisconsin (October 2022)
“Thank you for the fabulous workshop this week. It was so helpful for our team.”
—L, participant from a 3-hour team retreat in Madison (September 2022)
“Thanks again for such an amazing two-day experience. Let’s just say that you have given me a lot to reflect on.”
—A, participant from a 2-day team workshop in Northwestern Wisconsin (October 2022)
“Can’t tell you how many times I go back and lean in on all your support whether through our convos, your emails or just drawing inspiration from you. So thank you.”
—A, coaching client and community member, Iowa (October 2022)
“You’ve had a strong impact on my approach and style, which has given me confidence to step into this incredible opportunity!”
—J, leadership development participant, Madison WI (July 2022)
The above feedback was not, however, what I found myself focused on during a recent morning reflection session.
Instead, it was the response of one single person from a recent workshop, who answered “strongly disagree” to every single question.
I was able to apply what I learned as a leader: strongly disagree.
The workshop provided tools that will help me navigate my role as a leader: strongly disagree.
Overall, I was satisfied: strongly disagree.
The feedback was from one person, out of 50. However, without any constructive feedback on why this person hated the workshop, I was left to wonder in confused silence what this single attendee might have hated so much that they did not feel they had a single take-away.
Ironically, part of the workshop involved looking for bright spots!
It appears, to this person, there were none.
Was it possible that they misread the order of the responses and thought they were answering “strongly agree?!"
While I have worked for the last decade as a business owner at taking what is useful from this type of outlier feedback (challenging in this situation without any additional context) while also acknowledging it as an outlier, the mysterious strongly disagree responses still gnaw away from time to time, even if ever-so-subtly.
We can think about this as managers, as well.
We may think we have given gobs of positive feedback to our team members, but human nature is (often) to dwell on the bad stuff.
If we are giving constructive feedback to a high-performing team member, it is helpful to ground it in context (you are doing a fantastic job overall; here is an opportunity for improvement) to make sure our team members know not only how they did in a specific instance, but how they are doing overall.
What do you think?
Do you ever dwell on the negative outlier than the more positive majority?
If so, we can come back to our trusty friend of asking, “what is the one percent truth in this feedback?” where we take what is useful and constructive, and release the rest.
What do you think? Agree, disagree, or strongly disagree. . . ? ;)
