Why feedback is important? (wish I knew earlier)

The best performers in the world didn’t become the best just by learning new things all the time.

They became the best because they had someone(mostly coaches) who gave them feedback on what they were doing right, wrong and how they could improve their performance.

Feedback can shorten your learning curve.

Let’s start with a simple practical example.

Sammy and her recipes

Sammy pursued a career as a professional chef because she always loved cooking.

After becoming one, it was time for her to work at a restaurant and serve delicious food. Sammy was determined to do her best. She worked tirelessly in the kitchen and put all her heart into each dish.

However, her dishes were not receiving the rave reviews she had hoped for.

It was discouraging. What was going wrong? So Sammy decided to discuss this matter with the head chef about her concerns.

The head chef listened carefully. Then he pointed out how Sammy was not paying enough attention to the presentation and that the flavors in her dishes were not well balanced.

Sammy would willingly ask for feedback for every dish she would prepare.

Soon enough, the reviews from the customers and fellow chefs also began to change 🙂 She started to receive more positive reviews.

The invaluable feedback from the head chef transformed Sammy’s cooking.

Why is feedback important?

Here are a few reasons why:

1. Enhances performance

What happens when a young child puts their hand in a fire?

It gives them pain and also FEEDBACK — feedback of getting a painful burning sensation.
This teaches them an important lesson — to not put their hand in a fire.

Similarly, this is how feedback helps people.

It teaches you the mistakes you should avoid, and what to do instead.

When you improve on your mistakes, your performance gets better.

2. Builds self-awareness

You’ll notice people who don’t get regular feedback are often deluded. Their view of the world is pretty distorted.

In many cases, such people overestimate themselves. They might never know what their weaknesses are and never take action to fix these.

For instance, I have a friend who’s a ‘self-proclaimed’ writer. His grammar is fine. But his presentation and word choice definitely need some work. Every time I try to give him tips, he asks shuts my mouth.

And by shutting my mouth, he’s only deluding himself.

It’s okay if he doesn’t want to improve. But if his goal is to get better at writing, he should keep an open mind and accept feedback.

3. Fosters a growth mindset

Once the habit of getting active feedback sets in, you’ll get addicted to the ‘high’ you get from it. Let me share my story:

A part of my job requires me to interview people and create content from that. Before the content goes live, I need to show this work to my mentor.

My mentor then goes through my work, points out areas where I could improve and asks me to make those changes.

Earlier, we used to go back and forth 7-8 times. It was tough. There were times when the feedback was harsh.
But as I got better, this going back and forth became only once or twice.

Every time I got feedback, I learned something new and fixed my old mistakes. I could see myself growing after every round of feedback.

This started to give me a high.

When you get feedback on your work, it cultivates a mindset of growth.

4. Builds a sense of gratitude

See, getting harsh feedback isn’t fun.

But whenever I get feedback, I would feel very grateful to the person who took the time to show me the places where I could improve.

It means they actually cared for my growth.

Now don’t get me wrong — there’s a difference between someone giving you feedback to help you grow and someone saying things just to put you down.

With enough exposure to good and bad feedback, you’ll understand the difference between the two.

5. Promotes better relationships

When a team member receives feedback, it sends a signal that their ideas are being heard and actively thought upon by the rest of the team.

This can help form better relationships between the team members. Over time, this can help build trust, transparency and honesty.

Sometimes, insults can also be feedback

This is one of the hardest things to do.

The people who possess the quality to see feedback in insults are rare. But these people are also exceptionally self-aware. I’ve met a few of them, and I wasn’t surprised when I saw their fast growth.

You see many times people will criticize just to pull you down.

Like, imagine a bully calling out someone fat in front of a bunch of people. The intention of the bully is to hurt. However, in this remark, there’s also hidden feedback — a chance to work on one’s fitness.

This is where many high performers separate from the average ones.
The former sees such a remark as feedback to grow.
The latter takes this as a criticism and goes into their shell. They totally miss the hidden value in that remark.

This doesn’t mean you take insult. It’s important you be assertive. But when someone insults you, there might be a possibility that there’s something you need to work on.

Conclusion

Not getting feedback can feel like living in a bubble. It’s comforting, but it doesn’t push you out of the comfort zone.

So if you’re someone who cares about growth, do consider getting active feedback regularly from your coaches, mentors, managers, or someone you know who cares for your growth.