The Leader Lab

9Feedback Skills

While coaching stood out in our research as the top skill of great managers, feedback was a very close runner-up. Thanks to our experience training thousands of managers through LifeLabs Learning, we know that feedback is also the skill that's most likely to make a manager's heart race and palms sweat. Perhaps for this reason, feedback is one of the biggest skill gaps we see among managers. On the bright side, it is also a powerful tipping point skill that impacts diverse domains like conflict resolution, teaching, meeting facilitation, and communication. So, even though many managers come to this topic with trepidation, they find that developing feedback skills leads to a rapid return on time invested (as well as significantly fewer sweaty palms). In this chapter, we'll share what feedback is, why it's important, and how to develop feedback skills faster, including how to (1) give feedback, (2) receive feedback, and (3) build a feedback culture on your team.

What Feedback Is (and Why It Matters)

Simply put, feedback is information that helps you adjust or maintain your behavior so that you can reach a goal. Thirst is feedback from your body letting you know you need hydration. A knock is feedback from the door, letting you know your knuckles have hit it. And when it comes to the workplace, feedback is any information you receive that helps you become aware of the impact of your actions. Sometimes this feedback can come from results (for example, an increase ...