How Can You Receive Actionable Feedback?

Learning tips to seek feedback and accelerate your path to success.

The most common mistake with feedback is waiting for it to come to you. In this case, you will only receive feedback when things aren’t going well. Just asking, “Do you have any feedback for me?” without providing context doesn’t help either.

Passive feedback mainly helps you do well in your current position. You must actively seek feedback to move forward in your journey.

Today, I’ll share some tips you can use to help people provide you with actionable feedback.

• 🎯 Setting Clear Short-Term Goals

• 🤯 Gathering Feedback from Diverse Perspectives

• 😍 How Do You Like to Receive Feedback?

• 🗣️ Making Feedback a Common Topic During Your 101s

• 🚣 Guiding Your Career

• ❤️‍🩹 Unlocking the Value of Passive Feedback

🎯 Setting Clear Short-Term Goals

Understanding your short-term goals is crucial for seeking feedback. SMART goals help you discover what you need feedback on. If you are unfamiliar with SMART goals, here is a brief idea of how to use them.

Let’s assume you would like to improve your communication skills.

• Specific: What does “improve” mean to you? Do you want to write clearly or speak with confidence? Are you aiming to communicate better with non-technical people? Or do you prefer to enhance your influence among peers?

• Measurable: How do you define success? How can you measure your progress? Think about the impact. Don’t use Yes-No as a metric; instead, seek something that will show your progress on the way. It helps you to adjust priorities if you’re not seeing the results you expect.

• Achievable: Do you have what you need to make it happen? Experience? Guidance? Do you need to complete another goal first? Do you feel motivated enough?

• Relevant: How does it fit into your overall career plan?

• Time-bound: When do you plan to achieve it? What’s a reasonable time frame? If it takes longer than expected, are you still committed? Or are there quicker ways to get value?

🤯 Gathering Feedback from Diverse Perspectives

When seeking feedback, it’s essential to be selective and strategic in your approach. You must have more than one person covering the following aspects for each SMART goal.

• Who can provide you with advice? Focus on individuals with more expertise than you. Don’t just seek feedback from those who think similarly to you. People who approach things differently often offer more valuable insights.

• Who can validate your growth? Gather feedback from those affected by your initiatives. It’s beneficial to have input from more than one person here.

Consider that you want to enhance your mentoring skills. An experienced mentor would provide you feedback on your plans and experiences. They would also open your mind to things you haven’t considered. But your mentees are the ones who can help you understand if your approach is working. Still, relying solely on feedback from one mentee can be biased as it is limited to a single perspective. By gathering feedback from more people, you gain insights to identify patterns. It can help you differ individual preferences and areas for improvement. Additionally, input from different mentees can show underlying issues they might not be able to give you directly, such as the need to set clear expectations. And if you don’t realize it by yourself, a more experienced person will help you.

😍 How Do You Like to Receive Feedback?

When it comes to feedback, you might have your preferences. Have you ever thought about it? How would you like to receive it? If you answered this question with a feedback model, like SBI (Situation-Behavior-Impact), you should know there is more to consider.

It is often suggested to give feedback immediately, in person, and following an established format. Have you considered it may not mean you will make the most of the feedback? Reflect on what format, timing, or place would be most effective for you. And when you are ready, share your preferences with others.

• Format: What format works best for you? Does the SBI model suit you, or would you prefer something else?

• Advice: Would you like advice on how to improve? If yes, should people give it immediately, or do you prefer to have some time to think first?

• Timing: Do you want to receive feedback as soon as possible? Or do you prefer to avoid the end of the day because it might distract you from precious time with your family? Have you ever considered how the sender feels about it? Do they need time to process?

• Place: Do you prefer discussing feedback in a meeting or receiving it in writing? Would you like a follow-up meeting later, or would you prefer to keep it asynchronous?

🗣️ Making Feedback a Common Topic During Your 101s

The first 101 with a team member is an excellent opportunity to discuss feedback preferences. You can start building a culture of feedback right from the beginning of your relationship. Don’t wait until you need feedback to talk about it. Don’t mention it only once. Make discussing feedback a regular part of your interactions. You can share what you’ve learned from past experiences. Also, your preferences may change as you meet different people and discover new approaches. You want to keep everyone updated and guarantee the channel is always open.

If you’re already part of a team but have never talked about feedback preferences, take the initiative to start the conversation. Many people wish they received more feedback. If you’re one of them, begin by seeking feedback actively. Break the ice by sharing that you’re willing to receive feedback. Tell people what you’re focused on. Share your preferences. Ask if they miss it as you do. Ensure you know how you can help them too. The feedback channel flows naturally when it is reciprocal.

🚣 Guiding Your Career

A career plan helps you to decide what’s most important to focus on first. It shouldn’t be tied to a specific job title but to the work experience you want. Without it, you might spread your efforts across various initiatives and waste your social capital asking for feedback on things that won’t bring that value to your journey.

Even if it is tempting to expect your manager to set up a career plan for you, don’t make this mistake — craft your own plan. Then, ask your manager for their thoughts. Do they think it suits you? Do they see something you missed? What would they do in your place? What’s feasible in your team or company? With a good plan in place, it is easier for your manager to sponsor you. Being sponsored is one of the most effective ways to grow fast.

In the end, your career plan is personal. It shows the direction you want to go. It must go beyond your current position, company, or manager’s expectations. It is your north star to create goals and seek feedback that helps you move in the direction you want to.

❤️‍🩹 Unlocking the Value of Passive Feedback

Even though you actively seek feedback, you might still receive passive ones, which can also be a valuable tool for your development. It often involves areas where you may not perform well and don’t realize it — it shows your blind spots.

People may struggle to provide structured feedback when a culture of openness isn’t in place. In this case, you will only hear about issues after they have already caused damage. And often, the feedback won’t come well structured.

Still, there’s a good side. Someone is willing to give you feedback. Don’t miss this opportunity. Use the tips you just learned to help this person provide you with more actionable input next time. And if the feedback they gave is something you want to focus on, you already have a good candidate to validate your progress on this new goal.

🔖 Related Content You Might Like

• Vague Feedback Blocking Promo? by

  Raviraj Achar
  . Here, you will learn a framework to get better from vague feedback. It can be very insightful in how to deal with passive feedback.

• Super Specific Feedback: How to give actionable feedback on work output by

  Wes Kao
  . You can get great insights to help you understand how feedback could work in your favor and improve your skills in giving actionable feedback to others. I always learn a lot from Wes’ texts, and this one is very inspiring.

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Before I finish, I want to thank

Anton Zaides

for the valuable feedback he provided on this text. It helped me to create better content for you. 🩵

That’s all for today! 🎉

If this text helped you, consider sharing it.

I like getting feedback and connecting with people. Feel free to reach out – I’d love to hear from you! If you have suggestions for future posts, they are also welcome.

See you next time. 👋