LinkedIn Templates: Work

Running a business is all about learning and evolving.

Here's what fuels that fire for me: a continuous feedback loop.

Inside the Team:

► We actively seek feedback from our team.

► Their insights help us understand the challenges they face.

► We don’t just listen, we act.

► We refine our processes.

► We leverage technology.

► We strive to create a work environment that empowers everyone.

Outside the Team:

► Our customers are our best critics and our biggest supporters.

► We engage with them at every stage of their journey.

► Their feedback helps us understand their needs, expectations, and experiences.

► We use this knowledge to improve our products, services, and customer relationships.

The pursuit of excellence is a never-ending journey.

Every piece of feedback, every insight, every suggestion is a step on this journey.

We learn, we adapt, we improve. We turn feedback into action.

P.S. What role does feedback play in your organization?

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments!

#ctrlp #feedbackintoaction #customercentric #empoweringteams #customerfeedback

Build in processes that automatically hold your team accountable and everybody will be better off.

This means that there should be key elements to your client deliverables that are dependent on team members putting in real thought and strategy. Pulling data and analyzing that data. Then presenting those findings.

A great example of this is a QBR.

Another example of this could be an onboarding audit.

A third example could be a creative production roadmap.

Whatever it is, build a repeatable process to empower your team to do it as easily as possible. Empower them with this so that they can show you what they can REALLY do.

With this process in place your team will learn new skills while also feeling more empowered. Not to mention that whatever client you are serving will be impressed.

This is the opposite of the sink or swim mentality when it comes to finding your best employees. These processes give employees the guardrails to operate within and the tools to accomplish the job well.

You will still see your best performers rise to the top but you also eliminate the risk of client priorities falling through the cracks because your process becomes the bare minimum expectation rather than something only high performers produce.

Struggling to scale? Before pointing fingers at clients or your team, consider this: the real culprit might be lurking within your processes.

When you're scaling, you have to worry about reaching your goals. Often times you're too focused on the client, thinking the client is the problem and that's why they're unsubscribing, taking a long time to give feedback, or getting mad. Or maybe you think it's your team.

Often times it's your system of procces. So take a look at the machine you're building and see what part of it needs fine tuning. Maybe it's how you're sending work for feedback and you have no reminders setup for them.

Maybe you're onboarding employees without an SOP, so they're lost in the quality you want. You're not wealthy until you can leave the business and it runs itself. Systems and processes will help you build that machine that keeps running even if you go on vacation.

And when you're trying to identify problems, sample size matters. 1-2 clients/teammates isn't big enough. It can be insightful and always trust your gut.

How to ask for feedback effectively 😶 ⁉

1. Be genuine. If you're asking for feedback, you better care about it and be prepared to do something with it.

2. Be specific. What areas or aspects of your work or behavior are you most interested in getting feedback on?

3. Be receptive. Be open to hearing both positive and negative feedback, and don't get defensive.

4. Be curious. Ask follow-up questions to understand the feedback better.

5. Be grateful. Thank the person for their feedback, even if it's not what you wanted to hear.

6. Ask for feedback from people whose opinion you trust and respect.

7. Ask for feedback at a time when the person is available and has the time to give you thoughtful feedback.

8. Be specific about how you would like to receive the feedback (e.g., in person, over email, etc.).

9. Give the person time to process your request and give you feedback.

10. When you receive feedback, listen carefully and take notes.

11. Don't react emotionally to negative feedback. Instead, thank the person for their feedback and take time to reflect on it.

12. Use the feedback to identify areas where you can improve.

Watch the full motivational video with Tatyana Sanikovich "How to be a good Leader in the US. TOP mistakes immigrants do. Essential skills." https://lnkd.in/gwnYcdnB

Here is the 4-step technique to help you grow and take feedback from your manager in the right way.

1. Listen: Before getting defensive, don’t take it personally, even though it may feel that way, and remember that it's a business.

2. Repeat back what you’ve heard: This will help you make sure that you don’t misunderstand and the other person will feel like you’ve really heard them.

3. Try it out: Put it into action and pay attention to how it feels trying this new way of being and notice if anything changes in the interactions that you have with others.

4. Circle back with the person who gave you feedback. Let them know how you’ve put this new feedback into practice and how it’s going so far. See if they have any follow-up feedback.

I know that feedback can be tough to receive at work, but using this four-step framework can make it much easier.

Do you agree that feedback is a gift? Let me know in the comments.

Hey CEO/manager, do you let the recipient of your feedback choose when it's convenient to talk, or do you just 'barge in'?

2 EXAMPLES OF EFFECTIVE FEEDBACK

1 - Confirmational

'Hey Sam, it was a great idea to update the process that way - it will save us a week of work each month.'

2 - Confronting

'Bob, I've noticed that you're late for every Monday meeting; I can only interpret this as you not caring about the rest of our's time.

It makes me feel like you don't respect my leadership nor the team.

As a consequence, I get annoyed with you, & I don't feel like giving you the additional challenging tasks you've been asking for.

So, I wish you'd ensure you're on time in the future to create an environment suitable for both of us.

What do you think of that?'

The answer may be a completely different one than what you expected.

Bob always leaves his kids at school and then hurries to be on time (his wife works nights and can't leave the kids), but since no one has ever said this was a problem before, he had thought that was okay.

He asks if there's a possibility that the meeting could start at 8:15 a.m. instead so he could be sure to be on time.

Creating this type of 'feedback conversation' will generate an opposite outcome than if you just went into your employee's office and yelled at them.

👉 Anything you'd add?

PS. Tomorrow, I'll give you the 9 signs of effective feedback.

PS1. You'll find a link to yesterday's post showing you the framework for designing a feedback message.

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Read more: beasmarterleader.com/499

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How I was told to give feedback:

→ Focus on past mistakes.

→ Point out what went wrong.

→ Rehash errors they've made.

What I actually did to support my team:

→ Discuss solutions for the future.

→ Identify areas for growth.

→ Frame feedback as a learning tool.

Feedback about past mistakes doesn't fix problems.

↳ Dwelling on mistakes breeds fear.

↳ Fear kills engagement and innovation.

↳ Focus on past failures stifles growth.

How do we pivot from criticism to solutions?

To create a team that truly learns and grows, shift the conversation towards future-focused solutions.

Consider this scenario:

↳ Something didn’t go to plan.

↳ You’ve been told your team made critical mistakes.

You acknowledge that dwelling on mistakes hurts your team's morale and stops innovation.

You want to support your team.

So make the shift and ask yourself:

"How can we improve going forward?”

Take the time to reflect:

→ Were there hidden obstacles?

→ Did the team lack resources or information?

Share your thoughts:

→ Ask your team for creative solutions.

→ Their insights might surprise you.

Use your insights to empower and strengthen your team:

→ Help them identify strengths that emerged despite the mistake.

→ Encourage them and show them how to proactively use these strengths going forward.

Here's your action plan:

1. Break down the mistake:

Analyze each step to find where things went wrong.

2. Create a "Lessons Learned" document:

Capture key takeaways for future reference.

3. Encourage proactive information seeking:

- Empower team members to ask questions.

- Help them flag uncertainties at project conception and before problems arise.

- Encourage them to share expertise with each other.

**The Takeaway**

Traditional methods often promote harsh criticism instead of solutions.

True collaborative success comes from fostering a culture of learning and growth.

P.S. Ever feel pressured to improve your team without knowing where to start?

Share a time when focusing on past mistakes backfired.

Let's learn from each other! Share your experiences below 👇

Lots of companies do 360 reviews, but they’re unique at Amplify Data.

For one thing, when we do these reviews, our small team makes the experience a true 360: everyone in the company gives feedback to and gets feedback from everyone else.

That includes my co-founder Ameya Pathare and myself.

As another unique consequence of being a small team, our feedback is naturally non-anonymized, so when we do 360 reviews, everyone feels empowered to give direct feedback with their name attached to it.

We treat it as a privilege to get feedback from every single person in the company. In larger companies, you might only get feedback that’s specific to your department or function, so we think this is a major benefit to being small.

We’re proud to give and get feedback because we know it will help us grow.

Have you ever delivered a “sh*t sandwich”?

It is an old-school management technique, designed to help managers tell people what they are doing wrong. And I’m always surprised how often it’s still served up.

It refers to putting the ‘meat’ of some negative feedback between two slices of positive feedback, to make it more palatable.

It's rubbish. It doesn’t work.

Find out why - and a better way to approach feedback - in my latest newsletter. Link in the comments.