| Recently, a young woman who, in preparation for | | | | always the fear of harsh criticism -- which none |
| giving a 90 minute seminar at a regional | | | | of us welcome -- and finding out that we are not |
| conference on a rather dry and technical topic, | | | | as good as we think we are or want to be. |
| asked a group of us to preview her seminar. She | | | | - I give the young woman I described in the first |
| told us that we were to give her honest critiques | | | | paragraph a lot of credit, not only for asking for |
| along with any tips on ways she could improve | | | | our critiques, but also for being willing to follow our |
| her presentation. | | | | suggestions. |
| The group of people gave her many suggestions | | | | - She made us all comfortable about being honest |
| and comments-- some laudatory, but more on | | | | and constructive in our feedback. |
| how to change her program and delivery. A few | | | | - Most of the group knows her well, has heard |
| weeks later, she presented her updated | | | | her present before and wants her to succeed. |
| presentation at another meeting I attended. I was | | | | - She told us she wanted us to be "tough" and |
| delighted to observe that she had incorporated | | | | she meant it., |
| the suggestions, erased her distracting habits, | | | | - We all shared and learned from the feedback |
| enlivened her topic and achieved a powerful, | | | | ourselves and were proud when we witnessed |
| useful and interesting presentation. | | | | her follow-up presentation. |
| As so few tend to do, she had listened to us, | | | | When we receive feedback, whether asked for |
| taken our feedback and used it to her advantage. | | | | or not, we must decide what is valid and useful. I |
| In this article I investigate the various ways to | | | | am happy to give feedback when asked by |
| receive feedback and then take advantage of the | | | | someone like the young woman in this article, |
| parts you can use. | | | | who is serious about improving and knows me |
| The first step is to ask the right person and/or | | | | well enough to trust me -- she visits my |
| people for feedback. | | | | presentation site often, so knows my opinions. |
| - When we choose the person and/or people we | | | | So, remember, ask for feedback only when you |
| want to give us feedback, we should look for | | | | want it and plan to use it. Pick your evaluators |
| those whom we trust and respect, those who | | | | wisely and thank them by improving. Then, they |
| have enough experience to give us useful | | | | will know that they haven't wasted their time and |
| suggestions and then tell them what we expect | | | | expertise, and they will be proud as we were of |
| and want from them. | | | | our collegue. She put the feedback to advantage |
| - I feel that asking for honest feedback is one of | | | | and reached a whole new plateau in her |
| the hardest tasks we can perform. There is | | | | presentation skills. |