In the changing marketplace, the difference between success and stagnation of your personal and business growth can lie in one crucial skill: giving and receiving feedback. As a strategic leader, constantly giving and soliciting feedback is essential to getting the best out of yourself, your company and your team/freelancers. Yet many leaders and entrepreneurs do not actively practice this skill because they are not trained in this fundamental component of leadership.

Feedback in leadership

Feedback is giving feedback on the behavior or attitude of others, with the goal of working on your behavior and attitude to effectively develop further. It can be either positive or negative. Good focused feedback helps increase your leadership, strengthen your position and positively reinforce the right behavior. 

Strengthens your leadership, transforms your business

During my career in business and certainly now as a leader of my own company, I have discovered several frameworks during many training and coaching sessions that have improved my communication skills as a leader. In these Empowered Letters, I specifically address my top 3 frameworks for giving and asking for feedback. These frameworks improve your communication skills and enable you to give and receive better, more focused feedback. They are also applicable in your personal life, because even as a leader of your life, communication is the foundation of connecting, understanding each other and working together.

Top 3 Frameworks for Effective Feedback

1. Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI) model.

The SBI model is simple and helps you convey feedback in an understandable way.

Practical Steps:

1. Situation: Explain the situation.
   • Example: "During yesterday's meeting..."
2. Behavior: Describe the specific behavior.
3. Example: "I noticed you interrupted your colleague a few times..."
4. Impact: Share the impact of the behavior.
5. Example: "This made your collaborative partner feel unheard."

This model helps you give feedback in a structured and clear way.

Tip: Also, use the SBI model as a skeleton for your content or posts. Describe a situation you experienced with your client through the SBI model. By doing so, you provide insight into situations you encounter in your own company and you can immediately make a direct link to your expertise by describing the impact for your client.

2. COIN (Connect-Observe-Impact-Next Steps) model.

The COIN model is ideal for providing feedback while building relationships.

Practical Steps:

1. Connect: Build rapport.
   • Example: "Good work on your strategic plan last week..."
2. Observe: Share your observations.
3. Example: "I noticed that you took charge and worked full of focus on your profitable actions..."
4. Impact: Discuss the impact of the behavior.
5. Example: "This kept you focused and you could accomplish more in less time..."
6. Next Steps: Agree on the next steps.
7. Example: "Keep working on the right action, it really makes a difference..."

This model helps you give feedback in a way that strengthens relationships.

3. GROW (Goal-Reality-Options-Way Forward) model.

Originally from consulting, the GROW model allows you to give feedback and coach at the same time. You can apply this in your business, with your team/freelancers you work with, as well as directly with your clients.

Practical Steps:

1. Goal (Goal): Define the goal.
   • Example: "Our goal is to increase conversion this quarter by 10%..."
2. Reality (Reality): Assess the current situation.
3. Example: "We are currently on a 10% rise and need to improve. What can we do...."
4. Options: Explore different options.
5. Example: "We could record a sales call and have an audit done or have more sales training sessions..."
6. Way Forward: Decide on the next steps.
7. Example: "Let's start with a sales call/audit. Discuss and implement the feedback into the sales calls and see where we are in two weeks..."

This model helps you give feedback while coaching your team/client to better performance.

The importance of asking for feedback

Many leaders are more likely to give feedback - both solicited and unsolicited 😉 - but are reluctant to ask for feedback. This is a missed opportunity, because it is precisely by actively asking for feedback about yourself that you gain valuable insights about how and where you can improve yourself and strengthen your communication and position as a leader.

Why asking for feedback is important:

1. Self-insight: It helps you discover blind spots in your behavior and leadership style.
2. Growth and development: It offers new insights for personal and professional growth.
3. Self-confidence: It shows vulnerability and openness, which can strengthen trust in your business and with your customers/network/suppliers.
4. Exemplary behavior: By asking for feedback, you encourage others to do the same.

Soliciting feedback with these frameworks

1. SBI Model Reversal:

• Ask others to describe situations in which they observed specific behaviors of yours and what the impact was.
  • Example: "Can you describe a recent situation in which you noticed {...}? What was the specific behavior and what impact did it have on you?"

2. COIN model for Feedback Questions:

• Connect: Start from trust and connection.
• Observe: Ask for specific observations about your behavior.
• Impact: Ask about the impact of your actions on others.
• Next Steps: Ask for suggestions for improvement.
  • Example: "I appreciate your insights. Can you tell me what you observed in my approach to the last conversation? What impact did this have on you/in the company? Do you have any suggestions on how I can improve this?"

3. GROW Model for Self-Improvement:

Example: "My goal is to become a more strategic leader. How do you see my current level of strategy and leadership? What options do you see for me to grow in this? What would be a good first step?"

Goal: Set a goal for self-improvement.

Reality: Ask for feedback on your current performance.

Options: Explore different ways to improve.

Way Forward: Determine concrete actions based on the feedback received.

Strategic Feedback Asking

The above frameworks are mostly focused on personal leadership to further develop and grow on a personal level. As a Business Strategist, I also look at the effective strategy of soliciting feedback for business growth and leadership. By regularly soliciting feedback and input from your network, your clients and your collaborative partners on a business level, you will gain new insights and input for strengthening your leadership in your position, in your business and strengthening the value of your offering.

Practical Tips:

1. New offerings: Ask feedback from your current customers when you want to introduce a new offering or innovate your current offering. For example, ask them directly 1:1 or via an (online) questionnaire.
2. Collaboration: Ask your client to write a review during and at the end of a collaboration. Send them some questions they can answer, which will give you targeted and valuable feedback in return.
3. New market: Customize your content by using a questionnaire or poll to gather feedback and input when approaching a new market or audience.

By engaging with your customers, network, followers/readers and soliciting feedback, you gain insight into their preferences, interests and challenges. This feedback loop is crucial for continuously improving the value of your offerings so that you remain relevant and valuable to your target audience. Actively soliciting feedback also strengthens the sense of community, as the other person feels seen and valued.

Are you a feedback giver and receiver? How often do you ask for feedback from your target audience?

Pick one framework and apply it to a conversation this week. By using these frameworks, you will find that your communication skills improve and that you are able to give and receive better, more focused feedback.

One Life. Lead it. Live it.

Have a great week,

Gerdi

PS. Speaking of feedback. How can I improve my Empowered Letters to give you even more value? 😊

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Book tips:

Books that have helped me: 

Leadership & Entrepreneurship

The Diary of a CEO - Steven Bartlett
Tribes - Seth Godin
Principles - Ray Dalio
The Lean Startup - Eric Ries
Leaders Eat Last - Simon Sinek
Leading From The Emerging Future - C Otto Scharmer
Transformational Presence - Alan Seale
The Big Leap - Gay Hendricks

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