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Name your emotional response to feedback and move to action faster
I need to share some feedback with you when you get a minute.
Those words are like the crinkling of a styrofoam box to me. Dry and piercing with two day old Chinese food stuck to the bottom. Just irritating enough that you have to make sure it really bothers you, so you squeak it a bit more, smell the leftovers before dropping it and covering your ears and nose while your stomach turns.
My coworker dropped me a slack this week to let me know she had some feedback she wanted to talk to me about . She wanted to let me know that she was going to add it to our meeting the next day. There was the styrofoam.
Is that feedback for me, someone on my team or our team in general?, I asked. Secretly hoping it was the later and that it was in the “positive” category. I’ve been in the game long enough and I know the drill well. That’s not how you deliver positive news. It was feedback for me.
Thankfully she offered to chat that same day so I didn’t have to wait another half day and wonder what was in store. We grabbed a conference room and I sat and listened as she told me that several members of my team had approached her offering tidbits of frustration that they have with me.
