Turning Feedback into Actionable Growth

More than twenty years ago, I learned what’s proven to be one of the most impactful lessons I’ve ever heard around communication from a friend who was a practicing veterinarian. He explained that he could kill my dog and as long as he told me the right way, I’d bring every other dog I ever owned back to him. He followed that by saying that he could save my dog’s life and cause me to never visit his practice again by telling me the wrong way. Regardless of the role we fill in our organization or the type of business we’re involved in, how we deliver a message matters. If the messages we’re receiving aren’t delivered in the way we need to hear them, the trust we have in the source of those messages will wane. When that’s our boss, it will impact the level of discretionary effort we’re willing to give. If that’s at an establishment where we do business, we’ll probably soon be someone else’s customer. When that’s the feedback someone gives us, when it always comes across as “constructive criticism” and never feels like “alliance feedback,” little trust will ever be built and the odds of actionable growth based on the feedback will be slim (to none).

I recently had a chance to host my friend Chris Robinson as a guest on our Leading At The Next Level podcast. I knew Chris for several years as we were both active on the President’s Advisory Council for Maxwell Leadership. Not long ago, that organization offered him the role of Executive Vice President of Entrepreneurial Solutions, where he oversees their certification process globally, the same process he and I went through more than a decade ago. During our conversation, Chris shared something from his book, From Drift to Drive, that ties directly to turning feedback into actionable growth. He explained his “7 Step Process” for moving From Drift to Drive then and simplified that to just two steps: “Learn a little bit then do a little bit.” He emphasized that while those two steps explained the process quickly, it wasn’t meant to shortcut these seven steps:

1. Get clarity on where you want to go or what you want to achieve;
2. Gather the information you’ll need;
3. Filter that information;
4. Seek guidance from people who are where you want to be;
5. Build relationships with like-minded people;
6. Take action;
7. Evaluate the results from your action.

When we’ve been intentional about developing relationships with mentors and peers we can trust in the candid conversations that help shape our most crucial decisions, we have indeed put ourselves in a position to learn a little. That effectively addresses steps 1 through 5. With trust being the foundation for the feedback we’re receiving through those candid conversations, and when that feedback is delivered in a way we can internalize (geared to our individual communication style), taking intentional action to achieve the growth we’re after is a natural part of the process.

As much as this matters for us to build relationships that provide this level of feedback for us, it’s every bit as important that we work to do the same for the teams we lead. I often hear Mark Cole use the phrase, “Be a river, not a reservoir.” If we’re only focused on developing relationships that help us grow, the results we achieve will be limited to what we’re capable of personally. When we can offer the same kind of mentorship and alliance feedback to those coming on behind us, we can be part of a cascading effect like the river Mark suggests, and we’ll pick up there next time.