Tag: feedback

Feedback: why you read this blog.

Posted on January 5, 2010 by Doug Belshaw

A week ago I asked for some feedback, some reasons why you read this blog. The results were very interesting and the comments kind. 🙂

Some highlights from the Other category were ‘because I’m scared not to’, ‘satisfy idle curiosity’, ‘steal ideas’, and even ‘to snigger at your self-indulgent posts and share them with others’! :-p

Many people left wonderful feedback – thanks very much for that. I’m not going to share it all here, but this in particular made me smile:

“Are some edu bloggers more interested in exposure than impact?”
Its interesting that you comment on this because it is the exact reason why I like your blog so much, the fact that you want to help comes across very clearly in most of what you write and infact inspired me to start a blog, again more for myself but definitely not for recognition. I absolutely loved the piece on ‘cc’ and your attitude towards sharing good practice. Put quite simply www.dougbelshaw.com/blog is a place to read about good practice and it has definitely helped me.

This person (it was all anonymous so I don’t know who wrote this) has hit the nail on the head. I blog not only for myself as a creative outlet, but to:

Help and inspire others
Get people thinking
Share good practice

Thanks for all your comments in 2009 and I look forward to continuing the conversation in 2010! 😀

Why do you read this blog?

Posted on December 29, 2009 by Doug Belshaw

CC BY-SA Karl Horton

I write this blog mainly for me. Selfish as it may sound, I actually need an outlet for my thoughts and ideas.

That being said, I am interested in what people think of what I write and believe it is important to get feedback. As a consequence, I’d be grateful whether it’s your first or thousandth time visiting this blog, in you clicking some buttons below! 🙂

[googleapps domain=”spreadsheets” dir=”embeddedform” query=”key=tvonsk0rpH8MQpcEF1CnOtA” width=”500″ height=”575″ /]

If you’re reading this via an RSS reader or via email and don’t see a Google form embedded above, you might want to click through!

How to SPIN your way to giving more constructive negative feedback.

Posted on July 21, 2009 by Doug Belshaw

Spin

Image by jaqian @ Flickr

It’s difficult to give feedback, especially when it’s not positive. However, as a leader, it’s something that’s necessary to get the best of people. I know I keep banging on about Jo Owen’s book How to Lead: what you actually need to do to manage, lead and succeed but it’s excellent. Concise wisdom is what it is. 🙂

Owen believes that using the acronym SPIN can help leaders give more constructive feedback:

Situation specifics
Personal impact
Insight & interpretation
Next steps

Situation specifics

First of all, make sure the time and place is right. Give negative feedback in private when the person to whom you are giving it is calm. This needs to be as close to the event as possible (‘feedback, like milk, goes off fairly quickly’) but not when they are shouting and screaming!

Be specific about what happened. Using terms such as ‘unprofessional’ is not helpful and can actually be provocative. Talk about what it is in particular that is the problem (e.g. lateness to meetings).

Personal impact

People can argue about objective matters but not about how things make you feel. For example, saying that arriving late for meetings makes you think they don’t consider them to be important cannot be argued against.

Going down the ‘personal impact’ path allows you to talk about the issue without arguing, for example, about the number of minutes late, number of times, etc. Deal with the issue and

Insight & interpretation

Instead of telling people what to do, ask them if the impact that they’ve made (i.e. upsetting you) was the impact they wished to make. Get them to reflect on their actions. They are much more likely to value the solutions they come up with above any solution that you hand them.

Next steps

Once you’ve been through the above steps, you should now be able to calmly agree ‘next steps’ between you. Focus on the future being positive and constructive. Don’t play the ‘blame game’ and avoid discussing the past at this point.

Conclusion

Owen advises taking time over each step and not rushing through them. Although no-one looks forward to giving negative feedback, I am happier now that I’ve got a constructive way of approaching it!

What are your thoughts? 😀