• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About the Trench Life Blog
  • Contact Us
  • Trench Humour
  • Trench Recommendations
Trench Life

Trench Life

A blog for young professionals navigating careers in the trenches!

Start Doing These 4 Things to Receive BAD Feedback Like a High Performer

May 31, 2021 by Mark Atkinson Leave a Comment

Receive bad feedback like a high performer

Nobody likes to receive bad feedback. Why? Because it feels like conflict and we hate hearing that we’ve not done a perfect job.

What if I told you that the highest performers in any organization tend to turn the feedback process into a positive experience for the person delivering feedback, even if the feedback received is negative? Done correctly, it’s possible to leave your manager feeling you did a better job after the feedback conversation than they’d originally thought going into it.

The simple truth about feedback

Let’s dispel the illusion. EVERYONE receives bad feedback. Nobody is perfect. In a professional services career where you’re constantly learning, your managers aren’t expecting you to be perfect either.

Having said that, the feedback process is inherently subjective. While this can be frustrating at times, it also provides the opportunity for you to stack the deck in your favour. I find there are 4 very simple things that the high performers I coach do relating to feedback conversations that often leave me – as their manager – feeling a lot more positive about their performance than I might originally have been.

Fortunately, you can do all of these things too!

1. Be proactive

The highest performers are always hungry for feedback. They love hearing what they did well, but they’re even more interested in figuring out what they can do better.

This means that immediately after a project is concluded (sometimes during a project) I find these individuals scheduling time in my calendar to discuss feedback. This is a great sign that someone is going to be open to what I have to say.

It’s a natural tendency to procrastinate when you know that you might have some tough things to hear. Fight that tendency.

Make sure you are requesting comprehensive feedback as soon as your project concludes. This has the added benefit of helping you not to make the same mistakes on your next projects.

2. Self-assess

If I am stuck between two outcomes when grading an employee’s performance, I almost always award the better outcome if the person was able to identify their own development points.

The best way to prime yourself for a constructive feedback conversation is to do a proper self-assessment before the conversation.

Identify 2-3 things you’re particularly proud of on the job, and identify 2-3 things you feel you could have done better or that you would do differently if you had to start the project again. The trick here is to be brutally honest with yourself. You’re not helping anyone if you gloss over your mistakes. At the same time, however, don’t sweat the small stuff. It’s unlikely that your manager is going to be hyper-focused on the tiny mistakes you made. It’s more important that you focus on any major themes.

3. Listen with purpose

Once you’re in the conversation, it’s very easy to enter a defensive mindset. This leads to you not really hearing what’s being said or leads to you arguing. Neither of these things does you any favours.

Get rid of your defensive mindset and be ready to listen.

If you’ve done a proper self-assessment, it’s unlikely that you’re going to be hearing much you haven’t already thought of. If you do hear a feedback point you don’t agree with, ask the question: “could you give me an example of where you saw that happening?“

It sounds silly, but a lot of managers will deliver “gut feel” feedback (especially if it’s long after the project; see point 1 above) and don’t have any evidence to back up their claims. On more than one occasion I’ve had a manager of mine voluntarily rescind a feedback point if they couldn’t support it. Asking this question takes a lot of the subjectivity out of the feedback and opens your mind to different perspectives.

The highest performers that I manage are always eager to hear what they can do better. The conversation (and my perception of that person) are always better when this is the case

4. Immediately action

Its one thing hearing bad feedback. Doing anything with it is a completely different thing.

High performers action their feedback. They immediately turn key development points into personal objectives for future projects and hold themselves accountable.

I distinctly remember a feedback conversation in my first year at my firm after a long project. My manager – Dave – said, “Mark, you are doing great work and your peers look up to you but are you aware of your energy levels and demeanour in the room? You tend to be really negative about the job and this might compromise people’s perception of you over time.“

This hit me hard. Funnily enough, my team’s nickname for me was ‘Gramps’ (I was 23). Something which I thought was in jest suddenly made so much sense. I reflected on all the times I’d sat, slumped in my chair, sighing. I was mortified.

8 years later, this is still my number 1 personal objective on every single project I go onto. I strive to be the person that brings great energy and positivity to my teams. That single feedback conversation completely revolutionised my approach to work. Working with teams has become so much more rewarding as a result.

The best thing you can do for your career is to action bad feedback.


Feedback doesn’t need to be a negative experience

If you implement the above techniques when getting feedback, it can turn the process into a positive and rewarding experience for both you and your manager.

The worst thing you can do is pretend like you’re doing great when, in reality, you’re not. Sometimes faking it ’til you make it simply doesn’t work.

Go into the process with an open mind. You’re early in your career; be eager to learn and you’ll find that people’s perception of you increases dramatically.

Have you got a great Feedback story? Let me know in the comments!

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Follow me
Mark Atkinson
Editor & author at Trench Life
Mark spends his days at a big-four audit firm trying to help juniors navigate what can seem like a daunting environment, where you feel clueless on a day to day basis (i.e. The trench)
In his spare time, he enjoys writing, gaming and a beer or three.
Connect with him using the links above!
Follow me
Latest posts by Mark Atkinson (see all)
  • Avoiding Tears and Tantrums: Giving Negative Feedback Like a Pro - December 14, 2022
  • An AI has this advice to young professionals for 2023 - November 24, 2022
  • When’s the last time you prioritised yourself? - May 3, 2022

Tagged With: feedback, performance

About Mark Atkinson

Mark spends his days at a big-four audit firm trying to help juniors navigate what can seem like a daunting environment, where you feel clueless on a day to day basis (i.e. The trench)
In his spare time, he enjoys writing, gaming and a beer or three.
Connect with him using the links above!

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Want new posts sent to you?

Be a part of our community!

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

More to See

A close up of an AI humanoid robot

An AI has this advice to young professionals for 2023

November 24, 2022 By Mark Atkinson

Prioritise yourself - young professional services

When’s the last time you prioritised yourself?

May 3, 2022 By Mark Atkinson

Dear Manager - communicating with managers image

“Why doesn’t my manager listen to me?” – Communicating better with your managers

October 17, 2021 By Yi Su

Hot topics

AI Anxiety articles audit Career change career guidance coaching conflict confrontation corporate culture differentiating failure feedback finance flexible working initiative interview introverts job security leadership mental health motivation networking performance productivity quote resilience retrenchment secondment soft skills travel wellbeing women work from home

Our most loved posts

Insecurity and anxiety. The dark side of professional services.

Anxiety and insecurity: The dark side of professional firms (A true story)

By Mark Atkinson 9 Comments

Climbing out of the trenches - from the bottom up - audit articles

5 Things I Wish I’d Known Earlier About Serving Articles

By Christine Marais 6 Comments

Woman on swing overlooks Paris skyline

Lady up, Gents

By Pieter Senekal 6 Comments

Walk and talk - young professional lifestyle

Tomorrow Is Too Late – 3 Critical Lifestyle Reminders for Young Professionals

By Christine Marais 6 Comments

Coffee guy carrying coffee

Be the Coffee Guy

By Mark Atkinson 4 Comments

Footer

Welcome to Trench Life!

The Trench Life blog has been created for young professionals like you to help navigate the early stages of your career and keep you sane throughout!

We’ve got serious, we’ve got funny and we’ve got motivational. Take your pick and remember we’d love to hear your very own story from the trenches!

Learn more about Trench Life.

 

Recent

  • Avoiding Tears and Tantrums: Giving Negative Feedback Like a Pro
  • An AI has this advice to young professionals for 2023
  • When’s the last time you prioritised yourself?
  • “Why doesn’t my manager listen to me?” – Communicating better with your managers
  • 3 Popular Career Myths – Fact or Fairytale?

Search

Tags

AI Anxiety articles audit Career change career guidance coaching conflict confrontation corporate culture differentiating failure feedback finance flexible working initiative interview introverts job security leadership mental health motivation networking performance productivity quote resilience retrenchment secondment soft skills travel wellbeing women work from home

Copyright Trench.life © 2023 · · Log in
View our Privacy Policy

You can’t learn anything from a pop-up

But you can learn a whole lot from future posts on Trench Life, written for you by other young professionals. Don’t miss out on the best posts by letting us have your email so we can notify you of new content!

* indicates required