If You’re Not Getting Feedback, How Can You Expect to Grow?
Giving and receiving feedback is one of the most crucial ways we grow and learn, and is also the most nerve-wracking parts of the group coaching process for people.
If we don’t learn this as a skill, our feedback can default to “it’s so good! Good job!” (which is nice, but isn’t helpful, at all) OR can just come off as critical.
When we give feedback to our clients– on their messaging or sales pages or email sequences, we start with what's working and why.
It may be a turn of phrase, a really strong image, a clear and focused message, an interesting, eye-catching headline--anything.
This is powerful for two reasons: it kicks off the process positively to help the person receiving feedback gain confidence and it gives each person watching in the group, an objective entry point into their own work.
Then we talk about questions– as opposed to areas of improvement or “weaknesses.”
Giving feedback through questions might sound like:
What was your intention for using purple as your background color instead of green?
What part catches your eye first and is that your intended outcome?
Questions, first and foremost, puts the onus on the creator to decide whether or not they want to take their peers' (OR OUR!) suggestions.
It's a very professional way to give feedback and helps build the emotional intelligence for collaborative groups -- a necessity that should not be underestimated, regardless of the industry/professionalism/or experience of the group you teach.
Secondly, questions cut right to the core of the intentionality of each decision the creator is making. Often, the answer to those questions at first is “I don’t know why I chose to do that. I just did.” Questions foster reflection and ultimately intention– the most powerful tool we can implement!
After the feedback she received during one of our group coaching sessions, one of our Impact Incubator participants told us :
“I realized I was hiding by not raising my hand and getting feedback. For so long I was just content offering suggestions to others, when I could have been selling more of my workshops had I asked sooner and not just a few days before a launch.”
The next time she launches, she will implement the feedback she received much sooner with a longer runway and more sales is her very likely outcome.
Most programs avoid the implementing and giving feedback altogether, because it can be so uncomfortable, but if you’re not getting feedback, how can you expect to really grow/learn?