Last week, The New York Times published an interview with John Donahoe, President and CEO of eBay. While the entire article is instructive, in the opening section he talked about how he has dealt with and uses feedback.
In short, he says that he finds that about 1/3 of the feedback he receives is in alignment with his long term development goals, about 1/3 provides him a new perspective – something he wasn’t aware of, and about 1/3 ends up being things he chooses not to do anything with.
While Mr. Donahoe wasn’t talking about feedback from a 360 assessment, or describing how others will receive the feedback he shares, his approach is helpful for us as leaders as receivers of feedback, whether from leadership assessments, a performance review or an informal conversation and when we are giving feedback in our coaching and mentoring roles.
While giving feedback is an important leadership skill, receiving it openly is important for your leadership development, and often not discussed enough.
Make it one of your leadership activities today to reflect on how you receive feedback, and how you put it to use.
We also consider feedback to be an element of engagement. Whether it’s negative or positive feedback that we receive, we know that we have engaged our audience. It allows us to find ways to convey information that is relevant, important, and more engaging…especially when our audience “owns” the outcome.