Use Feedback to Help You on Your Way

In the business environment market research is used to
determine what products might be useful for the target market
and which ones could be profitable and popular. In our lives we
seldom do any market research. We decide on a goal and just go
for it.

Use feedback like market research. There are several ways of
going about it. You can ask around for feedback on an idea you
have and build your goal around the answers you receive. For
instance you might want to start a new hobby and think that
playing a musical instrument could be fun.

However, you have no idea what kind of instrument would appeal
to you. So you ask around a bit. You talk to music teachers
and find out what kind of lessons are available in your town.
You don’t want to go to the expense of buying a tuba if there
is nobody far and wide who can teach you.

Then you have a look and see whether the instrument you have
chosen is easily available. Or if you want to learn to play a
piano, will the instrument fit into your home? Have you got
space for it and can it fit through the front door? Then you
might need to see how noisy the instrument is. If it’s too
loud your neighbors might not approve.

Many questions later you might find that you can’t actually
learn an instrument because you live in the wrong area and
have no teachers near you never mind that you can’t afford
the instrument or the lessons if you could get to those.
You might want to reconsider your hobby and take up painting
instead.

Conduct your market research, ask your questions, and get
feedback. This doesn’t only apply for when you start on a
new goal. This could be all along the route you are taking.
Get feedback to help you along your journey.

If you are entering a new degree program you might want to
ask your professor whether your project work and assignments
are good enough. If not what else could you do to improve on
them? Maybe you even need to change subjects.

Use the feedback you ask for to help plan your route and get
your directions. You will want to ensure that you are on the
right path. One of the easiest ways of doing this is to ask
for directions.

Amongst the people you might want to ask could be fellow
travelers. These could be co-students for your degree
program or team members in a sport club or fellow runners
if you are attempting your first marathon.

It might be people at work when you start a new job or are
promoted to a management position. Asking your co-workers
as to how you are managing the transition could give you
invaluable feedback and excellent directions on how to
approach your job.

As long as you view the feedback as positive guides and
see them as offers of help you will be able to make use
of this to help smooth your path and find your goals with
less effort and possibly even with greater happiness.

Ask for Feedback (Part 2)

Many of us are very unwilling to ask for
feedback. This is because we are anxious
about what we will hear. We would rather
keep our head buried in the sand and not
hear any bad news or negative feedback.

As much as this is understandable it does
us no good if we do not know the truth.
If you are not providing the level of
service or quality of product your
customers and clients expect wouldn’t it
be better to know so you can make
adjustments before they leave you for
another provider?

Asking for feedback about your
performance, level of service, or quality
of product will give you an invaluable
advantage over those who fail to ask. And
if your clients/customers tell you that
you are coming up short you will be able
to repair the damage rather than find
your customers/clients have moved on.

Asking for, and acting on, feedback can
be a lot less damaging than waiting for
the end result. This is true in all
areas of life; including your health,
and personal relationships. Got a lump;
better get feedback from the doctor. It
will be easier to fix if you act quickly
rather than wait.

In many cases when you ask for feedback
you will find that you are the last
person to know. Your partner has already
complained about your behavior to her
friends and family. Your lecturer has
already discussed you progress with the
head of the department. Your boss has
already discussed his or her options with
the human resources department.

If you are a bad manager the whole office
knows already. If you are slipping up as
a sales person not only does your sales
director know this already but your
clients as well. People are too worried
about offending you to tell you what is
wrong. They would rather go to somebody
else. Now you are suddenly losing your
spouse, clients, and your job.

Find out what’s going on and take action
to fix what is broken. You cannot improve
your management skills, your relationships,
and your sales performance if you don’t
get feedback.

Wouldn’t it be easier to walk into the office
in the morning with smiling faces welcoming
you rather than everybody scurrying away and
avoiding you? How would you know what is
happening if you don’t ask for feedback?
And how often do we pretend everything is ok?

Get rid of those blinders and ask for
feedback. Ask your partner, your friends,
your colleagues, your sales director, your
clients or your coach. Make it a habit to
ask for feedback. Ask how you can improve
and what would make the situation better for
everybody.

Once you have your feedback, be grateful you
got it. Remember the person giving you feedback
is risking your rejection by offering you
feedback. Accept feedback with gratitude and
understand how lucky you are that you can fix
things before they get too serious.

Ask For Feedback

There are times in our lives we stand at a cross
roads and we don’t know what to do. What would
help us at a time like this is to find a person
or coach and get some feedback that will allow
us to maximize our life experiences. The problem
is that most of us don’t ask or employ a coach;
we think we can do this ourselves.

There are many times when we are faced with
difficult decisions and are not sure what to do
next. Often we ask the wrong person, like our
best friend. What does she or he know about the
situation you are facing? Is he or she a subject
matter expert in this area? Asking the wrong
people often gets us the wrong answer. This makes
us hesitant to ask in the future because we have
had a bad experience.

Yet we ask our friends more readily than going to
get feedback from an expert. Is this because we
feel vulnerable when we ask? Is it because an
expert will make us pay for information? Or is
because we just don’t know who to ask?

Everybody needs help. There are areas of our life
where we are obviously slipping up, not achieving
our potential, maybe even being a failure. Yet
often we would rather not ask for feedback than
be at risk to be told that we are not good enough.

This means that in some areas of your life we are
struggling unnecessarily. We grapple with
questions and problems without asking for feedback.
Missing out on advice and guidance will stop us
from developing ourself to the better person that
we can be.

How do you know if you are a good manager? How do
you know whether you are a good partner? How do
you know whether you are doing your job well? You
don’t unless you get feedback from the people
involved.

Ask your staff for feedback to see how you rate as
a manager. Discuss your relationship by being open
to getting feedback. Participate in job assessments
so that you can learn what needs to be improved
upon.

Finding the courage to ask for feedback will provide
you with invaluable information to enable you to
improve on your relationships with the people you
come into contact with. This can be people you live
with or people you work with.

In all instances asking for feedback as to how you
are delivering as a manager, partner, team or staff
member will allow you to grow and develop better
people skills and contribute to happier relationships
in areas of your life.

Being afraid to ask will not help you in your quest
towards developing more meaningful and happy
relationships. Asking for feedback will not only
help you to grow but will also help the person you
have asked to provide you with information that will
be of assistance to you.