Take the First Fall

Thursday, April 21st, 2016

When was the last time your feedback improved someone else’s life?

The problem is that we forget we’re giving feedback to a fellow human being, not an advice-taking robot. Even when we’re well-intentioned, the message gets lost in the transmission. It’s like the old saying “What counts is not what’s said, but what’s heard.” We respond emotionally to criticism, even if it’s just implied criticism. (Are you sure you still fit into that dress?) This makes it difficult to help others improve. In other words, we fail to understand and appreciate human nature.

According to Roger Fisher and Alan Sharp’s Getting It Done: How to Lead When You’re Not in Charge, there are three different kinds of feedback:

  • Appreciation
  • Advice
  • Evaluation

Their advice is not to mix the three:

  1. Express Appreciation to Motivate
  2. Offer Advice to Improve Performance
  3. Evaluate Only When Needed
  4. Take the First Fall

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