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Guest post by: Millard MacAdam Become an Author

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Receiving on course and off course feedback from trusted others is like finding gold of great value. Personal feedback from others is the "gold" that will support quicker and easier goal achievement in all dimensions of your life at home and work. On Course And Off Course Feedback - The latter can bring up uncomfortable feelings. However, it's likely to cause you to think and ultimately act to improve the quality of what you do at home and at work. On course feedback, if behaviorally specific, helps most of us keep on keeping on doing the right things right and usually brings up good feelings.

Ask Only If You're Willing - Personal feedback is often hard to receive. If you ask for it, it's critical that you receive it well with gratitude and humility. Acknowledge in your heart and mind that it's not about you, but what you are doing. It's an opportunity to receive information about how others perceive you can improve on doing something in a more effective and efficient way. Its important for you to understand and accept this if you are to really listen to what others have to say and accommodate and weigh it with an open mind and heart.

Choose Your Feedback Partners Carefully - Don't request feedback from negative or small thinkers. Avoid doing it with individuals who have hidden agendas, difficulty accepting the success of others, or a limited vision. Also, avoid people who love or respect you so much that they would rather withhold from you or protect you than offer honest, direct feedback that will be helpful to you.

Select At Least Three Feedback Partners - One person's perceptions have some value but may not be accurate. Three or more people feeding back their insights, even if in different ways, are more likely to be received rather than dismissed. The key then is to have three or more feedback partners to see if there are any recurring behaviors that you can enhance. If so, you will know that you have an opportunity that needs to be addressed if you are to grow and go to higher levels of personal performance.

Choose Feedback Partners Like A Team - Select individuals with the experiences, areas of expertise, and wisdom that can serve you. Each will be a feedback partner with a unique perspective, adding invaluable dimension to the feedback they give about your performance. Also, the varying perspectives of your feedback partners can help you pinpoint holes in logic, substance, and facts that you might have missed.

Provide Clear Instructions - Let your feedback partners know the "what" of the particular thing you want them to assess or look for and the "how" of sharing their insights with you. This enables them to focus their eyes, ears, minds and hearts on what's most important to you and to share back with you accordingly. Applied skills, expressed values, appearance, communication effectiveness, openness, defensiveness and logic are examples.

Make Your Feedback Expectations Clear - State the kind of on course and off course feedback you expect to receive. Let your feedback partners know it must be constructive, not destructive, and that it must be behavior specific. Comments like - "I liked it!" are meaningless. They do not help you grow and go to new levels of excellence because they provide no solid information for you to work with.

Take Careful Stock - All feedback we receive takes some time to digest. Let the feedback from others incubate and filter through your mind and heart. Only when you have absorbed what's been said can you decide if and how you will act on it.

Consult Your Most Important Critic - You're always the most important person to determine what you can and should do to enhance your performance. If you are open and honest with yourself, you know your performance attributes and quality better than anyone else. You know what you want it to be and are the only one who can achieve your best.

Be A Feedback Partner - When others ask you to be a feedback partner, do it! Be honest, specific, relevant, caring and present with the person, intellectually and emotionally.

If you need help in mastering and implementing any of the skills and tactics mentioned above, I'm here for you! Please contact me if you have any questions.

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