6 minute read
Creating A Culture of Feedback.
By Louise May
Dwight Hodge grew up in a hairdressing family, his parents Ian and Trish, owned Ian’s Hairdressing, ID Hair, and Walk Up Cuts & Colours. Dwight resisted hairdressing, instead studying a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Victoria College of The Arts.
However, at 23, he was drawn to a hairdressing apprenticeship. Over the following years, he grew into leadership roles, completing a Cert IV in Training & Assessment and eventually shifting focus to the business side of running their salons.
After facilitating Business Seminars for Schwarzkopf and Indola across Australia and into Asia, Dwight’s passion for lifelong learning led him to study coaching. In 2019, Dwight qualified as a Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). He holds a Cert IV in Business and Personal coaching and is an accredited International Coaching Federation (ICF) coach. He is also the owner of two hairdressing salons in Melbourne.
Editor Louise May chats with Dwight about the launch of his recent co-written book “Feedback”.
Can you share the inspiration behind writing this book?
A conversation with my co-author, Shelley, sparked the idea for the book. As coaches, we regularly see the adverse effects and consequences of poor or limited feedback on individual performance and business success.
We wrote the book to flip many people’s negative associations with feedback. The book shines a light on the considerable impact effective feedback has on retaining top talent, reducing team member turnover, increasing trust levels, accelerating individual growth and development, team culture, accountability, and overall business results. Creating a culture of feedback is a simple three-step process. What’s even better is that effective feedback conversations are fast and free!
Feedback is often associated with negative connotations. How does your book aim to change this perception and help embrace feedback as a positive tool for growth?
Feedback’s negative association predominantly stems from our experiences growing up and working. It has often been poorly given, non-specific, without consideration or context and is primarily unexpected and uninvited.
The book uncovers a fresh approach to feedback. Traditionally, the giver of feedback instigates the conversation and takes control. The three-step feedback model flips this, giving the person seeking feedback power. Having control over the feedback conversation gives the seeker ownership over their growth and development, shifting their association with feedback from a negative experience to a positive one.
Could you elaborate on the unique approach you have developed for incorporating regular feedback into leadership practices?
Traditionally, feedback flows from the top down when a leader shares feedback with a team member. Research shows it’s often delivered cold, well after the fact, and saved up for monthly or quarterly performance reviews. Unfortunately, in many businesses, feedback is never shared at all. There are three components of an effective feedback conversation.
Firstly, you need to connect with the other person and build rapport. Be careful not to confuse a good personal or working relationship with rapport. They are different. Second, seek feedback before giving it. As a leader, this is important as it highlights to your team that you respect their opinion and point of view. That you are willing to listen and you’re open to personal growth. Your team also become aware by seeking feedback they are in control and take ownership of the conversation, its potential learnings, and their personal growth and development.
Third, when giving feedback, ensure it is 100% for the other person. If you’re providing feedback for any other reason, don’t! It never ends well. Also, avoid the dump’n’dash. Ask permission before sharing your feedback. You don’t want to launch into it and retreat just as hastily. If you do this, the other person’s natural reaction will be to throw up their defences and shut down, failing to hear what you’ve shared or any potential value it may have offered them.
This new approach to feedback isn’t just for leaders. The actual value of effective feedback is realised when feedback becomes part of your culture and is embraced by everyone in your business.
Could you give an example of how effective feedback can contribute to both individual growth and team cohesion within a workplace?
Imagine six months from now, your team are seeking feedback from each other, and these conversations are a regular part of your daily business rhythm. Through seeking feedback, your team create open and honest communication channels, a depth of trust, a willingness to listen and share, and are committed to holding each other accountable, which leads to a more effective team and better business results.
As individual team members seek specific feedback on areas they want to grow and develop, everyone becomes more engaged and invested in each other’s success.
For you and your team to consistently seek and share feedback, everyone feels heard and supported and sticks around.
What are some key strategies or tips from your book that can be applied so feedback is well-received and leads to productive outcomes?
Although you can’t control how others act or react, and there are no guarantees your feedback will be well received, here are three tips you have control over.
Clean.
Keep it simple and stick to the facts. Use clean language and offer feedback that is observable or measurable. Steer clear of feedback based on your feelings and emotions or a third party and hearsay.
What is your intention for giving feedback?
Go for it if it’s 100% focused on the other person and their growth and development. If for any reason it is not, don’t go there! Refrain from giving feedback when it’s about you or your ego, when you want to feel better about yourself, offer it to put others down or prove your superiority. You may feel your feedback is about them at times, yet on closer review, it fails to be of any value. Potentially, you are just venting or attempting to get others to do things your way because it makes sense to you. However, it may not suit them.
Current.
Feedback does not have a used-by date. However, it does have a best before. Share your feedback as closely as possible to the action or behaviour occurring. Forty-eight hours is a good guide, as the situation and any related circumstances or relevant context you refer to should still be fresh in their mind.
Contextual.
Connect the feedback you share to a specific area of development the other person has previously sought feedback on. Alternatively, connect your feedback to the business’s purpose or values. Aligning the feedback, you share to their personal growth and development, the business purpose, values, or expectations gives the context often missed when sharing feedback. Giving context allows them to understand why you are sharing the feedback and connects the detail of your feedback with the bigger picture of personal goals and expected standards.
SCAN the QR Code to get your copy of ‘FEEDBACK’.
