feedback

Front row feedback. It’s easy to give but we often hold back, because we are used to less, such as:

  • What’s “acceptable” to the Organisation

  • “Carefully worded” appraisal

  • Self-consciousness or lack of courage

  • The manure heap of biases known as office politics

  • The quid pro quo fallacy: praise can actually be given without something being done beforehand

  • Or worst of all: no feedback at all

I’m not the most lavish with praise, but given some thought, who doesn’t like being told they’re doing well? I have never gone home from work thinking,

“I just got far too much feedback today,”

“They are too nice to me,”

“I’d better start underperforming so they stop commending me..” etc.

And for anyone wavering on the robustness of my argument, giving a compliment makes you feel good too. So—win-win—as long as it’s honest and as unfiltered as possible. People know intuitively when you are BS-ing them, so don’t do it.

postscript: improvement to the title: give POSITIVE feedback like a child. I don’t want to be called a “total idiot” or that I’m “never, ever, never on time!” whenever I’m five minutes late to a meeting 😉