www.fastcompany.com: With all the “be your best self now!” hullabaloo, we can get overwhelmed with what we think we should be doing. We can drive ourselves crazy thinking about all the things we could do to make ourselves smarter, stronger, better. Not long ago, I actually found myself surrounded by whiteboards sketching out all of my self-improvement plans for the year, kanban board style.
3 comments:
I’ve always felt that feedback was important and while I like the article and it’s points, what i did not see talked about is that kind of feedback that actually isn’t. Criticism that is disguised as feedback is still criticism. Most people, who think they are offering feedback, are really only offering criticism. Through a series of leadership development workshops that I have taken over the years, I have been able to develop a pretty good system for feedback. It’s called the sandwich method. A good, a needs improvement, and a good. Quality feedback is that which not only identifies an area that needs improvement but also focuses on what someone is doing well. How you say it is also as important as what you say. When I give feedback I always try to focus not on the person, but on the task that they could improve on. For example, I really enjoyed the presentation on new methods of construction in our industry but was distracted by the vocalized pauses, the “likes” try to diminish those until they don’t exist as much, but also great job on the part about new ergonomic tools. It lists a positive, a needs improvement, and a positive. Good feedback should always end with both parties feeling better about the process.
We all want the people around us to think highly of us and think we are doing a great job and we see all the ways we think we are failing. But I agree with the author of this article; it’s the feedback we receive from the outside sources that actually makes us change. When you sit down and think of the ways you could improve and all the big changes you’ll have to make to make those things happen, it becomes easy to justify not changing because maybe those around us don’t notice it so it’s not bad if I don’t actually follow through with this plan. But one we are told straight up what we fail at from those around us we know for sure that someone has noticed our failings and we are much more motivated to make a lasting change. And it’s so hard to go looking for that feedback and to give it because you don’t want to hurt the other’s feelings or have your feelings hurt. But if you can look at it through the lens of being the cause for good growth it’s not so bad. And this article has some good pointers to make you aware of your bad reactions to feedback so you can push through the defense and actually grow.
I found this article really helpful because particularly in a BFA environment you are constantly getting feedback and responses on your work. So learning to take criticism is an important skill both for improving as an artist, but also in every aspect of life. But what I got most out of this article, in in order to take feedback well, you have to be able to recognize what the person is trying to get you to understand, rather than getting defensive. Understanding your triggers, and seeing it as information rather than attack makes a lot of sense to me. I think it can be easy just to brush aside criticism if it is not given well, but then it also think it takes time to figure out how to understand and process the criticism you are getting. I think even though crits can be a pain in the butt, I also know how important it is tel self reflect and look at what you did, but also have the opportunity for a check in point.
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