Coach Me! Your Personal Board of Directors

6 Making the Most of Feedback

Scott Eblin

Scott Eblin is an executive coach, leadership educator, and best-selling author of two books, including The Next Level: What Insiders Know About Executive Success, now in its third edition.

It was 30 min past our scheduled appointment, and Fred was nowhere to be found. I had been cooling my heels in the lobby of the Fortune 500 firm where Fred was a vice president. It had been a week since I had met with him to deliver a coaching report based on feedback I had solicited from his colleagues.

That last meeting had not gone so well. The verbatims in the report were tough; many of them could be described as brutally honest. When he read through the report for the first time, Fred discounted a lot of what he was reading and said that his colleagues “didn’t get it.” If he had to be the tough guy to make sure things got done and done right, then so be it. I wrapped up the feedback meeting by asking him to reflect on it for a few days and we would meet again in a week to discuss next steps.

So, seven days later, I was back and Fred was missing in action. The security guard in the lobby called Fred’s number every 10 minutes and went to voice mail. I started emailing him from my phone trying to stir him up. No answer. After half an hour of pinging, I got up and headed for the parking lot. Just as I did, the elevator door opened and, lo and behold, there was Fred. “Oh, I’m sorry, he said, I didn’t realize we had a meeting today and just got the ...