{"id":64,"date":"2015-08-07T20:30:55","date_gmt":"2015-08-07T20:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/?p=64"},"modified":"2015-08-24T13:40:24","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T13:40:24","slug":"feedback-the-breakfast-of-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/?p=64","title":{"rendered":"Feedback: The “Breakfast of Champions”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you want to get better at anything, one of the most valuable resources you can have is tough, honest feedback, and one of the most valuable skills you can acquire is the ability to handle that feedback effectively. And when I say \u201cacquire,\u201d I mean exactly that, because for most of us, the ability to handle tough feedback is definitely not easy. I\u2019ll be the first to admit that this is something I\u2019ve had to work at for most of my career, and even with all that work, I still sometimes find myself getting defensive when someone is critical of something I\u2019ve done, or haven\u2019t done. Let\u2019s face it: we\u2019d all rather hear that we\u2019re doing a great job.<\/p>\n

But again, if we want to get better at anything\u2014and that includes becoming a better leader\u2014honest feedback is incredibly valuable. So how do you get better at dealing with and profiting from feedback?<\/p>\n

The single best piece of advice I\u2019ve been given in this regard is to change the story you tell yourself when you receive the feedback. Much of our behavior\u2014maybe most of our behavior\u2014is shaped by the stories we tell ourselves. Stories in which we\u2019re the hero or the victim, stories in which we\u2019re being challenged, or taken advantage of, stories in which we fail or triumph. Often we\u2019re not even aware that these stories are playing in the background of our mind, but that only makes them more powerful.<\/p>\n

So the next time you get some tough feedback, don\u2019t let your mind run the story that you\u2019re a victim, that you\u2019re facing a threat\u2014a threat to your position, your power, your next performance review, your next raise or next promotion, your relationship with your manager or the people you manage.<\/p>\n

Rather, you need tell to yourself that this feedback is a valuable gift that will help you become the best leader you can be. And in my opinion, that means becoming a Servant Leader, leading with a servant\u2019s heart. If you view your role as a servant to your people and your organization, you\u2019ll find it much easier to accept and even invite tough feedback in order to keep growing and to provide better service to the people around you.\u00a0 You may not always be comfortable hearing it, but you\u2019ll definitely find it easier to listen.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll get far more out of what you take in.<\/p>\n

After all these years I\u2019ve found the easiest way to figure out whether someone is a servant leader or not is to observe how well they take feedback. Leaders who can\u2019t handle feedback, who are threatened by it, who don\u2019t want to hear about how they could improve, who may even punish those who dare to suggest that they might not be perfect\u2014those people can\u2019t be servant leaders their view of the world is that it\u2019s all about them! The servant leader turns that view upside down, says it\u2019s all about those whom I serve, and embraces anything that will help him or her serve more effectively.<\/p>\n

So there you have it. I\u2019m not saying that learning to accept and work with tough feedback will be easy by any means,\u00a0 but I am saying that you can make it easier<\/em>.\u00a0 If you change your story, you can change how you view feedback. You can get past the defensiveness we all experience because we\u2019re human. You can use feedback as a source of energy to dramatically move you and your organization to the next level!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                                                          If you want to get better at anything, one of the most valuable resources you can have is tough, honest feedback, and one of the most valuable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67,"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions\/67"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}