Feedback Strategies

 Last week I learned about how to receive feedback and why it can be so helpful, this week I have learned how to give feedback to others in a way to help them. The first article I read was How to Give Feedback Without Sounding Like a Jerk. I chose this one because I always struggle with giving feedback incase it comes across rude and I offend the other person without actually getting to help them. The first thing mentioned in this article is the "compliment sandwich"-this is where you "put a slice of praise on the top and the bottom, and stick the meat of your criticism in between." Initially I thought this sounded like a good idea until I read further and saw was given four steps of better ways to go about giving feedback:

1. Explain why you're giving the feedback
2. Take yourself off a pedestal 
3. Ask if the person wants feedback
4. Have a transparent dialogue, not a manipulative monologue 

I think these are great tips to remember and I think I will be a lot more confident in the future when having to give feedback myself, I may have to revisit this blog from time to time to remind myself but I definitely think this will be incredibly useful. 

The next article I read was The Trouble with “Amazing”: Giving Praise that Matters. This article struck me because I would have assumed "Amazing" is a good thing to say. The article talks about why you shouldn't say this but instead be more specific, it doesn't mean don't praise people it's just telling us to not be so broad with it. We are given three reasons in this article for why we shouldn't just tell someone they are amazing:

1. It's Paula praise (referencing Paula Abdul, as a judge on American Idol)
2. It's Unspecific 
3. It praises the person, not the effort

From this article I learned that praise is important to reinforce but only when done correctly, you need to be specific in what you're impressed with so that people know exactly where they're going right and can work on other things.

Overall I think I have learned quite a bit about how to correctly give feedback and praise, without sugarcoating it or being too harsh. This is a skill I believe will be super important to have over the next few years in the course and also to carry on in life with me.

Image found on pinterest- https://pin.it/67UvQMu

Thanks for reading :)

Feedback Thoughts

 The first article I read was Why rejection hurts so much.  From this article I learned that our brains are wired to respond to rejection the same way we respond to physical pain and thats why even the smallest rejections and criticisms can hurt more than they probably should. 

In this article I found out this fear of rejection we are all wired to have actually stems from our hunter-gatherer days in tribes because we couldn't survive alone so we needed to be accepted by others in order to stay alive. However, now thats not quite the case but we are still wired to react with the same level of pain and most of it is caused by our own self criticism as stated in the article, "Unfortunately, the greatest damage rejection causes is usually self-inflicted. Indeed, our natural response to being dumped by a dating partner or getting picked last for a team is not just to lick our wounds but to become intensely self-critical. " 

The article does give us some ways of how to try improve on this by telling us:

• " Have zero tolerance for self criticism "
• " Revive your self worth "
• " Boost feelings of connection "

Overall what I took from this article is that rejection is not the issue because it's going to happen in life no matter what, what's important is how you handle it. Like many others I am guilty of being overly self critical when something doesn't go my way but I think from now on I need to focus less on bashing myself more and to just take the criticism and learn from it to better my situations. 

The second article I chose was Seven ways to crush self-doubt. The seven ways mentioned in this article are:

1. Don't compare yourself to others 
2. Abandon perfectionism
3. Be vulnerable to a trusted community 
4. Embrace a growth mindset
5. Set goals that are within your control
6. Treat your work like an experiment 
7. Trust yourself 

I think a lot of these are things I currently struggle with and some I didn't even realise I was struggling with until I read about them. I personally am someone who doubts most decisions I make, seriously I am way too indecisive I cant even decide which biscuits I want with my tea sometimes ( The real important stuff I know). It was great reading this article because it was able to point out an issue and give ways to improve the situation, I honestly believe this is an article I'll come back to from time to time just as a reminder. I've really enjoyed learning about this type of stuff in this module and I love that it isn't something to help in just this class or course it's stuff that will help you grow in every aspect of life. 

I think Feedback is something that is incredibly important and really helpful when working on a project. Constructive criticism, although it can be hard to hear sometimes is the only way to improve anything. If you surround yourself with only yes men you will never progress anywhere, you need a community of people who will tell you what you can improve on. The most important thing is being able to handle this criticism which is why I liked these articles, because they teach us how to overcome our own self doubt and criticisms so we can focus on moving forward, working harder and bettering yourself and your projects. 

Heres an image I found on pinterest that I think shows a great way to give and to receive feedback in a healthy way. 

Image found at: https://www.pinterest.ie/pin/732679433122418980/

Thanks for reading :)