How do you use feedback to improve your team's collaboration and performance?

Giving feedback a chance to add up to your performance assessment is key. The feedbacks will communicate to you where you need to improve on based on how your service/product are perceived by clients/users. Improvement is a driving force for relevance and when it is not achieved through feedback, it can create limitation in delivery.

Feedback is valuable in guiding growth and innovation. It illuminates our strengths and illuminates areas needing refinement, offering a vital perspective. Constructive feedback from peers, clients, or mentors serves as a compass, aligning our aspirations with reality. It ignites motivation, fostering personal and professional development. Embracing feedback cultivates adaptability, fueling our journey toward excellence. In the absence of feedback, untapped opportunities remain, hindering the realization of our full creative potential. It's the catalyst propelling us toward mastery and profound artistic expression.

I would like to mention The Johri Window model here. Feedback helps us in widening 1st quadrant(Open/self-area). Refer https://www.communicationtheory.org/the-johari-window-model/

Feedback is crucial for improving team collaboration and performance because it provides valuable insights into actions, behaviours, and results. It helps individuals understand their strengths and weaknesses, align their goals and expectations. Alongside traditional feedback, I also incorporate feedforward techniques. Feedforward focuses on future actions rather than past behaviours. Example: Feedback: "Your presentation lacked clarity and the slides were too text-heavy. You should work on simplifying your slides and making your points more concise." Feedforward: "For your next presentation, try using more visuals and bullet points to make your slides clearer and your message more impactful. Let’s brainstorm some ideas together."

Continuous feedback = organisational improvement. Don't wait! Continuous feedback is essential for organisational improvement. It allows individuals to adjust their behavior and performance in real time, based on their leader's feedback. It also lets them know how their work is impacting the organisation's performance. Leaders can implement continuous feedback by setting clear expectations, providing regular, specific, and timely feedback, and being positive and constructive.

I believe feedback unlocks growth, but only when delivered with care and received openly. Beyond highlighting strengths, leaders must state situations, behaviors and impacts precisely. But critique should uplift, not shame. Suggestions for improvement must be actionable, not abstract. Feedback works when leaders listen as much as they speak, inviting perspectives with empathy. Collaboration blossoms when teams internalize feedback as fuel for collective advancement, not individual judgment. With trust and patience, feedback elevates teamwork to higher planes. Without it, even top talent stagnates. Leaders thus provide the gift of feedback frequently. It forges alignment, raises standards and fulfills all that teams can accomplish together.

Giving feedback is an artful process, requiring nuance and empathy. It's not merely about highlighting right or wrong actions, but rather offering insights for growth. Effective feedback begins with acknowledging strengths and efforts, emphasizing behavior over personal attributes. Utilizing the SBI model—stating the Situation, Behavior, and Impact—provides a clear framework. Offering specific, actionable suggestions enhances its value. Equally vital is inviting the recipient's perspective, fostering dialogue. Active, empathetic listening ensures feedback is not just heard but genuinely understood, nurturing an environment of continuous improvement and collaborative excellence.

Feedback should never be weaponized by peers, leaders or team members. Keep the feedback clear. Start with what is working well relative to performance objectives, career development support and wellbeing. Next, what is something that you need the leader/team/peer to start doing to help improve performance, career support or wellbeing. Finally, clarify what is the one thing that is currently not supporting your ability to perform well, implement your career development or impacting your wellbeing. Wellbeing is a new topic of feedback discussions for many. Focus on support you need or appreciate from your teams/leader/peer, such as implementing 5 mins after the hour start times to allow transition between meetings. Small steps = big impact.

Be specific and actionable. Focus on the behavior and provide examples. Be timely. Give feedback as soon as possible. Be positive and constructive. Focus on the behavior and offer suggestions for improvement. Be open to dialogue, and receiving feedback also. Give the person an opportunity to respond and ask questions.

After setting objectives, identifying the audience, and choosing delivery tools, it's critical to create a detailed plan for receiving and acting upon feedback. Creative collaboration is crucial for successful leadership. Seeking diverse perspectives on the feedback plan is essential. Remember, the goal of feedback is transformation, and it's a tool for motivating and inspiring creativity, innovation, productivity, and excellence. Regular self-reflection, team collaboration, open communication, and a program of celebration and recognition for received feedback are vital in assessing the impact of ongoing changes on your collaborative leadership and that the goals attained are in synch with the organization's vision and mission.

You will wait for feedback if you position yourself in the driving seat(pilot) of your life. In this way, you can think everyone else as co-pilot. In this way, any constructive feedback, positive or negative, is a means to enhance you. With this view of life, you are bound to thank the person who gave feedback to you :) Note that this is based on my personal experience.

Feedback isn't merely an event; it's a continuous, evolving process necessitating a supportive and trusting team culture. To cultivate this, clarity is key: set precise expectations regarding feedback's purpose, goals, criteria, frequency, format, and sources. Lead by example, demonstrating effective feedback exchange and encouraging open dialogue. Facilitate platforms for team-wide feedback, celebrating successes and fostering a culture where feedback becomes a catalyst for growth and innovation. In these creative fields, feedback isn't just a tool; it's the heartbeat of artistic evolution.

Feedback is not a one-time event, but a continuous process that requires a supportive and trusting culture. To create this culture in your team: Set clear expectations for the purpose, goals, and criteria of feedback. Model feedback behavior by giving and receiving feedback effectively. Create opportunities and platforms for feedback exchange among all team members. Celebrate feedback results by recognising and rewarding efforts and outcomes. Share feedback stories and successes. Some additional tips for creating a feedback culture: Make feedback a regular part of your team's workflow. Encourage 360 feedback not just from managers. Be open to feedback yourself. Use feedback to make improvements, both individually and as a team.

Creating a feedback culture is an ongoing process that requires a supportive and trusting environment. To achieve this in your team, it's essential to establish clear expectations for feedback's purpose, goals, and criteria, as well as its frequency, format, and sources. Here are action steps that you can use to start: 1. Regular Check-ins: Schedule bi-weekly one-on-one meetings with each team member to discuss their progress and gather feedback. 2. Peer Review System: Implement a peer review system where team members regularly give and receive feedback on their work. 3. Feedback Workshops: Conduct workshops on how to give and receive feedback effectively, using role-playing and real-life examples.

There are many feedback tools out there. In my work as a collaborative consultant, I always keep my eyes and ears open: I like to share my discoveries with my client. In an upcoming assignment with a leadership team, I will focus an entire workshop on practicing feedback, starting with different methods. They will experiment and... share they feedback on the experience of course!

Feedback tools are invaluable aids, enhancing the efficiency and efficacy of the feedback process. Surveys and questionnaires, versatile in their anonymity and format, gather diverse perspectives, be it quantitative or qualitative. Interviews and focus groups, whether structured or unstructured, yield rich insights individually or collectively. 360-degree feedback, sourced from various angles, provides a comprehensive overview of collaboration and performance. Feedback apps and software streamline the process, offering templates, reminders, analytics, reports, and even gamification, ensuring feedback isn't just collected but transformed into actionable insights, empowering continuous improvement and growth.

Measuring the impact of feedback demands a strategic approach. Define pertinent metrics aligning with collaboration and performance objectives, encompassing both quantitative and qualitative aspects. Employ feedback tools and diligent record-keeping to track these metrics over time. Analyze the data against established baselines and targets, discerning trends and gaps. Delve into factors influencing the metrics, adapting strategies and behaviors accordingly. This cyclical process, rooted in data-driven insights, ensures that feedback isn't just received but actively shapes collaborative dynamics and performance, fostering continuous growth and refinement.

In my experience, feedback is inseperable from collaboration and performance for a team. It is the only way to realize the impact of their actions: individually and collectively, for ourselves and for others. I often train teams in finding and practicing the method that works best based on 2 criteria: 1 their existing culture: they might be more comfortable with some techniques than with others 2 their intention: individual or collective feedback, negative or positive feedback, topic for the feedback (globla orientation of a project or specific action for example). Feedback is a muscle that needs to be trained every single day to make a team collaborate and perform well.