Leadership: Giving and Receiving Impactful Feedback in a Hybrid World

1. Introduction: In my work, I'm constantly engaging with top performers across industries and fields, from business to sport, to academia, to science. In all cases, those who continuously excel and perform at a high level are open to feedback. They embrace it, they take it onboard, and most importantly, they're happy to give it to other people too. Hi, I'm Abigail Ireland and I'm a peak performance strategist. My work involves working with executives and teams all over the world, looking at how we can optimize performance by fine tuning mind, body and business factors. Learning to embrace feedback has been hugely empowering for me and I want to inspire you to love feedback too. In my time when I worked in banking, when I was in the corporate world, it was really hard to give and receive feedback because people were always worried about offending someone, upsetting someone, saying the wrong thing. In this class, we're going to cover a framework that you can use to make time for feedback conversations and we're going to break this down into easy actionable steps that you can follow. We're also going to look at factors to consider other than just the content of what you want to say. We're going to explore ways to not only give feedback, but tactics to embrace receiving feedback too and why this is important. Finally, we'll cover how to track progress once the feedback conversation has taken place. This class is for people who want to understand the art of giving and receiving feedback regardless of level or location. I'm really excited for you to take this class because feedback is the key to progress. I'm going to be sharing some simple ways in which you can get started immediately and embrace feedback without that awkwardness or anxiety. I'm also going to be giving you some practical tips so that you can select what works for you and experience that boost in performance that follows for you and others when you learn to embrace feedback conversation. At the end of each lesson, I'm going to be sharing a quick and simple activity for you to complete and the worksheet accompaniment for this class is going to guide you through each lesson, so you can build out your very own feedback blueprint, ready to put into practice. I'd love for you to share your feedback blueprint in the project gallery. Feel free to ask any questions in there as well. I'll be happy to help and give you my inputs. On that note, everyone, let's get started. 2. The Benefits of Giving Feedback: What exactly is feedback? What does this mean to you? Let's think about that for a moment. You may hear the words and think nothing of it, or you might even be cringing thinking of past experiences where you've had feedback conversations with someone else that maybe didn't go to plan. The dictionary definition of feedback is advice, criticism, or information about how good or useful something or someone's work is. Feedback can take on a number of different angles, but ultimately, it's all information that we can use. In this class, we're going to explore what's needed for impactful feedback conversations, whether these conversations are with someone you manage, a colleague at the same level as you or even, and this one can be really difficult, someone more senior than you. You can even use what you learn to have better conversations in your personal life. Feedback conversations aren't just reserved for when someone needs to do better. Studies actually show that even high performers benefit from feedback as this enables them to get even better and reach new heights. In fact, one study that was taken across 27 countries found that feedback was a huge contributing factor to job satisfaction with 50 percent of high-performers expecting to have monthly conversations with their managers so they could be crystal-clear on what they needed to do to keep advancing. We're going to discuss how we can use feedback to develop a high-performing team where the conversations take place in an office or remotely. There are lots of words we can use to describe feedback, there are various types of feedback. Feedback can be positive or it could be improvement-focused. It can be useful as well to guide us on what we can stop, start, and continue doing to perform at a high level. It can be used to make significant changes or to fine-tune specific aspects relating to what we do and how we do it. However, the word feedback can sometimes trigger us, and this can be based on our past experiences. As humans, we are wired to respond to danger and we tend to see feedback as a threat. We respond in the same way to this psychological threat of receiving feedback as we would to a physical threat that could harm us. Different words can trigger different responses. Think about the emotions that come up for you when I say the following. Assessment, criticism, evaluation, observations, advice, tips, guidance, reflections, insights, and suggestions. Which words trigger a reaction in you? Which words do you like, and which words make you feel no emotion at all. No pun intended, but this is all useful feedback for you when you were having a conversation with someone else. Your choice of words really makes a difference. We know that feedback is an important leadership skill as it helps you to get the best from others. If done well, feedback can boost productivity, quality, behaviors, and results whilst empowering people to become even more high-performing. There are benefits to both the feedback giver and receiver, the wider team, the business, and even other stakeholders including suppliers, investors, customers, clients, and communities. Take a moment to consider the benefits of feedback beyond yourself, as this will make it so much easier to have these conversations in the future. We struggled to have impactful feedback conversations for a few different reasons. Firstly, we think about ourselves. We worry about the impacts on our relationships, the potential repercussions of saying what we really think, maybe fears about career progression, retaliation, or perhaps even falling out of favor. We also worry about the tension that could build up between us and the other person and how this could impact our ability to influence effectively and work together in the future. Then we think about the other person. We worry about emotional reactions. We might hurt someone's feelings, we might offend someone, even make them angry. There's so many reasons why we might hesitate to start on a feedback conversation. In order to get more comfortable, we need to re-frame how we approach feedback. A helpful way to shift our perspective is to keep in mind that we give feedback because we care about the other person. There are consequences if we don't speak up, consequences on performance, business outcomes, and the health of our relationship in the longer term. In her book, Radical Candor, Kim Scott discusses how feedback shows that you care. We're not being helpful by hiding what we really think. Ultimately we're holding people back from knowing what they can do to be even better. It's actually unfair to the other person if we don't share our thoughts. Kim talks about shifting our perspective to see feedback as guidance, combining care with suitable challenge. In fact, the Harvard Business Review found that whilst most people dread keeping feedback, most people also want to receive it. 57 percent of people prefer corrective feedback versus 43 percent favoring praise or recognition feedback because it helps to improve our performance. You can see how there is a gap between what people want and what people actually get. If you want to show you care and that you value your people then it starts with having these honest, robust, and kind feedback conversations. Really now it's about considering the benefits of giving feedback for yourself, the other person, the wider team, business, and other stakeholders. Try to brainstorm as many benefits as possible so that you feel comfortable and confident that there is such a strong case for sharing your feedback, that it wouldn't be fair for you to keep quiet. Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing. Giving feedback benefits you because you get to say what's on your mind and this can be very satisfying emotionally and mentally. You may also benefit from less work or rework in the future. If someone else has the chance to improve their performance, you're benefiting the recipient because they can immediately take action to change their approach or even doubled down on what they're already doing well so they can progress and get even better, more quickly and effectively. You're helping the other person to develop in their career and giving them clear direction to fine-tune their performance. When it comes to your working relationship, you're deepening trust and transparency by having these honest, impactful conversations. You're showing the other person that you care about them and their career by investing your time and effort to support them. Finally, you're up-leveling your overall team's performance by focusing on each individual. This in turn is going to directly flow to team results and business performance. I want you to be excited to share your fantastic insights and guidance with the person you have in mind instead of feeling like you are dreading it. So that we can get the best out of this class, take a moment now to think of someone you want to give feedback to over the next few days or weeks, who do you have in mind? What relationship do they have to you? Are they perhaps more junior, at the same level, or even more senior than you? You can use the class worksheet to help guide you through a series of questions that will prepare you for your conversation. 3. Making Time for Feedback: Given that we're all so busy, it can be really hard to make time for feedback. We got tight schedules, we've got constant meetings, competing priorities, and making time for feedback can be really difficult, even more difficult in a hybrid working situation as we may not have the opportunity to meet up easily. We tend to want to wait until we are physically in the office before we give feedback, but this whole process can feel too formal and even irrelevant by the time we actually have the discussion. Even if we decide to have a remote feedback conversation, we feel like we have to put a meeting into someone's calendar. By the way, it can feel like there is a big buildup before the event and this contributes to the nerves and the anxiety around feedback. What we want to do is get to a point where we feel comfortable giving feedback regardless of whether we're face-to-face or speaking virtually, the timeliness of feedback matters. It doesn't make sense to wait until year-end or half-year end. It needs to be part of everyday conversation to have maximum impact so the recipient can learn and connect the feedback with real-life scenarios. Studies show that giving feedback as soon as we can after an incident can be more effective than delaying this feedback to a later date. This can be challenging when interacting remotely, especially we're bouncing from one meeting to the next without any opportunity to actually start the conversation. For example, if you are in a meeting with someone who did a great job facilitating or someone who could fine-tune performance by being more precise or concise in a meeting, it would be great to have a quick chat to bring this to their attention at the very same day. The topic is more relevant and the recipients can immediately start making changes. It also feels less formal and less daunting when it flows naturally from the event. We need to realize that feedback conversations are not a chore and then not an extra thing that you need to add to your task list. In fact, the key to success is to skillfully weave feedback into your everyday conversations. Make it flow, make it dynamic, make it agile. At the end of the day, this is a conversation, so it's all about effective action-oriented communication. Going back to the benefits, remind yourself of why feedback is so crucial and how it's going to benefit relationships and outcomes in the future. Some easy ways to casually discuss performance after meeting or an incident could include using some phrases to get the conversation flowing. For example, how do you think that went? What do you think were the best bits about that meeting? I'd love to hear your thoughts on that project or activity or meeting. I thought that went really well because of X, Y, and Z. What do you think about this? Do you want to have a quick chat about how we could make it even better next time? Use a phrase that feels natural to you but get practicing because that's the most important piece. I want to share some practical tips to help you to get into the habit of making time for feedback if this isn't immediately after the incident. Now casual feedback conversations should happen regularly every single day, but you may need to weave in some more intentional sessions should work get busy and these informal conversations start to slip. We can use a framework called the ACE framework to assess, create, and execute on our conversations with impact. Let's start with the assess. When is the best time to have a feedback conversation? What makes sense for you and for the other person. I'd like you to think about the time of day. Do you want to do this first thing in the morning or is it something that you want to do later on in the day? When will your mind be at its best and its clearest? Consider what else is going on with work and meetings. Anything else that could distract your mind and assess whether the person you want to speak with has a lot going on or whether they are going to have the headspace for the conversation. Having a feedback conversation maybe the confidence to delegate more in the future because other people are developing and in this way, you can reclaim time for other activities. Assess what you're working on, what is taking up your time, what would be a better use of your time. Particularly if in a leadership role, we're developing team members is actually crucial for individual team and business success. Next thing we need to do is create space and that means making time for feedback, ensuring that the other person doesn't feel rushed or feel that the conversation is what we call a tick box exercise. It's important to create the space for an effective feedback conversation and spend time, sufficient time, building rapport and trust before you jump straight into feedback giving and this is particularly important if you're giving the other person constructive or improvement feedback. So psychological safety is key to open and honest two-way conversations. You can understand where each other is coming from and tackle the real issues and challenges directly and honestly if the other person feels rushed, it's going to be hard for them to build trust or for them to feel like you genuinely care about their progression or their role or their input. Assign time to catch up on progress and provide feedback making this a normal part of the discussion. Now you can set feedback or guidance or something else whatever you want to call it as a recurring agenda item to remember to do this. The more you do it, the more others will expect it and the easier it's going to get. If it helps create a recurring reminder in your calendar so that you can keep feedback conversations front of mind. You could also keep a checklist of everyone you want to give feedback to on a regular basis to keep track of whether you are consciously making time even when you're caught up in the business of everyday work. You need to decide whether you're providing positive praise feedback or constructive improvement feedback. Are you going to take a formal or an informal approach and how much time are you going to need? You don't want the conversation to feel rushed. So it's important to preempt potential emotions and reactions. The most important piece here is that we actually have the conversations. We don't want to put them off or delay them because we're busy, we're nervous or anxious about the outcome. Prioritize discussing feedback. The more you do it, the easier it's going to become and the more smoothly it will become part of your everyday working culture. Now that I've shared the ACE framework with you, have a look at your worksheet and choose one tactic that you want to pay more attention to going forward. Keep in mind the person you want to have a feedback conversation with. I'd love for you to share your ideas so please do share these in the discussion section so you can get feedback and inspire others to make time to do the same. 4. Setting Up a Feedback Environment: In a face-to-face environment, it usually feels more appropriate and comfortable to have a feedback conversation. However, in a virtual setting, it can be more challenging because we've got limited ability to benefit from that human connection and to benefit from the subtle nuances that help us to build rapport. According to one study on virtual communication that involved over 3,000 participants, it was found that the absence of nonverbal cues, the lack of warmth, and reduced demand for the engagement meant that virtual interactions were perceived to be impersonal, shallow, and more challenging than face-to-face interactions. We need to learn to be comfortable giving feedback in both a virtual or physical setting, rather than delaying or putting off these conversations entirely. So here are some easy ways to develop rapport despite the location. Firstly, think about the environment you're stepping into based on what would be most comfortable for you and the other person. If you're both comfortable, you're going to be more relaxed, you're going to be able to have a more productive and more open conversation. If you're face-to-face, think about where you're sitting. Are you sitting directly opposite each other? Are you creating a more informal environment or more of a informal vibe by sitting side-by-side? What about the physical setting? Are you going to opt for a meeting room or a coffee shop to promote the most appropriate ambiance for yourselves? A quick chat via the phone may work if you want to create an informal casual vibe, but you might also want to have a more in-depth conversation, keeping your video on and asking the other person to do the same. You can also use virtual backgrounds and settings to help create the ambiance you'd like, but this doesn't always compensate for the lack of a physical atmosphere. You may want to even think about giving a glimpse into your world by showing the space behind you, if at home, maybe something that reflects and shows your personality. You might even want to consider what you wear to set the tone. Linking to this, we really need to reinforce that the conversation is confidential. Simply stating this can be reassuring. If you're giving positive feedback, it could be fine to have the chat in a coffee shop or a cafe, but you probably want to ensure that no one else can listen in, especially if you're having a more difficult feedback conversation. If you're having a remote conversation, a virtual or overly blurred background might make the other person feel like there might be someone else lurking around behind this and listening in so we're perhaps not creating an environment for honest conversations. You need to show that you're in a private setting to ensure that the other person feels relaxed and safe to share with you. Something you can do is wear a headset because this can help to send a clear message that the conversation is contained between the two of you. The next thing we need to think about is staying fully focused on the other person. Simon Sinek once gave a great example about being attentive, explaining how simply having your phone in sight or in your hand can send a subtle message that you're not fully present and you've got more important things to do. Small things matter. Set up your environment for focused conversation by keeping your phone out of sight, remove paperwork, remove any other distractions so you can zone in fully on the other person. Virtually, you might want to close down applications, put your video on full screen mode, turn off any alerts, or even use a different device to ensure that you're fully present and you're not tempted to multitask. It's really important to think about how you come across to the other person in terms of your tech setup. This is going to help to build rapport and empathy. Onscreen, check that you are more than just a floating head. Some research shows that video calls can be just as effective as face-to-face conversations if we get that upper body framing right. Ensure that the other person can see your body language as much as you can see theirs as these non-verbal cues give valuable clues and help to build trust. Using your worksheet, take a moment to reflect back on previous conversations where you've received feedback from someone else in a virtual environment and this was successfully done. Think about what made that feedback land well. What did the person do or say to set the scene and create comfort? Now, jot down some notes on what you can do in your next feedback conversation to create the right ambiance for success. 5. Giving Effective Feedback: So whether we're giving feedback in a face-to-face or a virtual setting, there is some fundamentals that we need to keep in mind. In this class, we're going to go through the feedback model. I'm going to share some practical examples and tips to set you up for success. Analysis of various research studies shows that over one-third of feedback interventions actually decrease performance. So we need to get this right. So talking through the feedback model, we're going to be covering frequency, the importance of examples, evaluation, delivery, the importance of building a bond, asking good questions, clarifying, and providing knowledge. All of these are important and need to be considered throughout our discussions. Let's now explore each element using an example of a meeting that has just taken place where someone has given a presentation that didn't go to plan. Frequency relates to how often you decide to have these feedback conversations. Research shows that having frequent informal, casual conversations is really powerful and much more effective than only waiting until the mid-year or the end of year review time. It also means that you can start to create a habit and we've feedback into ways of working and communicating instead of feeling like it's an additional chore. Think about the opportunities to inject feedback into your day. This could be, for example, immediately after a meeting, you could ask for views on how the meeting went. For example, whilst we're here, what do you think went well? How do you think that went? During your weekly one-to-one, you could ask the other person what they think about how they're doing. What do you think worked really well here? What can we learn from that? In a one-to-one with your boss, you could offer to give valuable insights. For example, I'd love to share some thoughts with you on what would make something like this work even better next time, are you happy for me to share? Getting permission works really well as it gives the other person an element of control which can be reassuring. With a colleague you're working with on a project, ask if you can drop in a couple of suggestions that would be beneficial whilst touching base on progress. You could say something like, I was thinking about how we could streamline some of the processes to make things even easier for us, would you like to hear my ideas? Now we come to examples. It's always useful to base your initial feedback of the facts rather than the opinion. So give unbiased specific evidence of what you've noticed and observed as this allows the other person to reflect on the reality. For example, I noticed in that presentation that you moved through the action plan in just three minutes. I'm wondering, was it enough time for everyone to digest what was required? What do you think? If providing feedback virtually, you can even use the technology to bring up examples on screen that you can discuss together. Now we go into evaluation. As you go deeper into the conversation and it starts to flow, be sure to provide your evaluation. Remember, it's got to be a two-way conversation though, not you just speaking at the other person. Using the previous example, you could offer more insights. It's easy for people to get confused about next steps. I'm wondering if they will have had enough time to gather their thoughts during the presentation. What do you think we can do to check that everyone is clear on the plan of action and their roles and responsibilities. Also share the consequences or the wider impact of what you are discussing and on whom whether that is negative or positive. Next, we have delivery. I believe that any message can be successfully conveyed to anyone regardless of how difficult the conversation it is or a message it is, it all comes down to what we say and how we say it. Understanding the other person's communication style and preferences is going to be important. We also need to consider our tone of voice, our pace, and our emotions. If we come across as rushed or anxious or tense or stressed, this is going to be obvious and it's going to unsettle the other person. Take a deep breath and clear your headspace when preparing for feedback conversation. Use a well-placed, calm, and positive tone of voice throughout to help you to stay relaxed and non-judgmental so you can get the best outcome. We've already touched on this, but I can't stress how important it is to create a bond and maintain rapport if we are wanting to have honest, effective feedback conversations. Harvard Law School lecturers Douglas Heen and Sheila Stone say that we can be triggered in three different ways when we receive feedback from other people. We can experience, firstly, the truth trigger where we don't believe in the feedback that someone is sharing. We can also experience identity triggers where we feel like the feedback is a personal attack, maybe on our identity. We can experience relationship triggers where we respond differently to feedback based on who is providing it. If we don't respect or like the person, we are less likely to accept the feedback coming from them. This is why it is so important, so crucial to build connection. We want to take time to build trust. We want to demonstrate our credibility and get to know the other person. Most importantly, don't just interact with someone when you want to give them feedback. So depending on your relationship, you could even use humor or share your own challenges to show your own vulnerabilities to build a safe and trusting environment. Be fully present, listen carefully, show the other person that you value them. Also look for non-verbal clues that indicate that the other person is open to feedback, such as an open relaxed posture or relaxed facial expression, good eye contact, and relaxed tone of voice. The next thing we need to do is learn to ask good questions. We need to ask questions that make the conversation dynamic and natural and ask questions to hear the other person's perspective. You might even ask a question to get the conversation started, giving the other person a chance to share their evaluation before you decided to chime in. You can use open questions and you can invite the other person to contribute as much as possible during that conversation. For example, you might say, what are our key learnings from that meeting? Or what do you think? We might say, how do you think we could change that next time? Be curious throughout this process. What worked well from your perspective? If we went to do just one thing differently next time, what would you suggest? Or how do my views align with your thoughts on how it went? So make it a two-way conversation, not just a download of what you want to say. Make sure you listen deeply to what the other person is saying. The next thing we need to do is clarify throughout the conversation, make sure you are checking for understanding any misinterpretations, any ambiguity. You want to leave the conversation with both parties clear on what was discussed, why it's important, and what's going to happen next. So listen carefully, ask more questions, and be clear on expectations. What does success look like? What do we need to do to get there? How can we make this a success? What makes this important? What are the consequences if we don't take action or do things differently? You can also ask what are the benefits if we keep operating in this way? Get clear on all of these, look for body language clues to assess whether you are aligned or not. Now, before wrapping up a feedback conversation, we need to check that the other person feels supported and confident to take action. This is where knowledge comes in. If you can provide your insights, your knowledge, your tips to help set the direction. Offer to be there for support and to answer questions in the following days and weeks ahead. Remember you are doing the other person a disservice if you're not providing useful honest feedback, give both positive and improvement feedback so that people can keep doing what works and course-correct where required. Now I appreciate that giving feedback to more senior stakeholders can be really, really difficult. It can be really tricky, but the feedback model still applies. What helps here is spending more time developing the relationship and framing your feedback as ideas or suggestions that will help benefit the individual and the wider business so the feedback doesn't come across as criticism or an attack on that person's competence or authority. You could use phrases like this. Would it be useful for you if I gather my thoughts on improvement points as we progress through the project so that we can give ourselves the best chance of success. I'm happy to do this if you think it would be beneficial. Then you can follow up with what specific areas do you think would be best for me to focus on when doing this? So approaching a senior stakeholder like this will hopefully be seen as proactive and a great show if initiative and you will most likely get the green light to go ahead and give your feedback. It's time now to revisit your worksheets and reflect on which elements from the feedback model you do well and which you need to focus on a little bit more in the future. Use the scale to assess your current position and write down one action that you are going to take after this class. 6. Receiving Feedback: If you expect others to embrace feedback that you deliver, it's important that you role model this by being open and enthusiastic about receiving and acting on feedback yourself. We can then empathize as we know what it feels like. We know what works well, and we know what can cause unwanted reactions. With 360 degree feedback surveys, we might prefer to invite those who are going to be nice to us to participate; or perhaps people are generally cautious about saying what they really think. The more we embrace feedback, the more open others will be and the more useful our conversations will be. Research tells us that managers who seek out improvement feedback are seen as more effective by their peers, their direct reports, their senior leaders. We can gain respect and credibility by leaning into feedback, whatever our level of seniority. In fact, studies show that novices are more likely to seek praise feedback, whilst experts are keen to seek out feedback that will show them what they can do and what they need to do to improve. The hardware company Screwfix is known for its strong feedback culture. In particular, its encouragement of two-way feedback, where employees are given permission to provide honest, comprehensive feedback to their leaders on a regular basis. This then feeds into ultimate decision-making and creates a healthy, thriving feedback culture that is embedded into ways of working. To get into the practice of receiving feedback gracefully, you can learn to ask, permit, accept, and observe. With asking, first thing we need to do is reach out for feedback from different people at different levels, especially those people who you wouldn't normally ask. Permitting is about telling the person you want feedback from that you want the good, the bad, and the ugly truth, as this is going to help you to be even better. They are essentially doing you a favor. Accepting is about making conscious decision to take any and all feedback with humility and gratitude. Thanking the other person for their insights and noticing if you feel triggered or maybe emotional at times. Finally, observing. This is about watching others give feedback, whether it's virtual or face-to-face. What do you like about the way the other person set up the conversation? What would have been better for you? We actually learn best from others' mistakes or our own mistakes and actions, to take notes for your future conversations. The more senior you are, the more experienced you are, which means that you may unconsciously be closed to feedback without even realizing it. You might even assume you no longer need it. Instead, lean into it, embrace and ask for feedback from those across the business. Make people feel valued and make them feel engaged because you care about their opinions, about their views. For example, at the end of town halls and any other meeting, take five minutes to ask for feedback to encourage and role model this culture. As a manager, your job is to role model best practice by asking for feedback from those at all levels around you. People might not feel comfortable giving honest feedback because they may have a fear of repercussions. You can create an anonymous channel, or you can be entirely transparent about how their feedback is going to help you become a better manager. You could even start off with a simple rating scale for various items you want feedback on, and this can help to get the conversation started. If you're an individual contributor, write a list of three key stakeholders, and then send a short e-mail to each person describing exactly what you want a feedback on. Before selecting your stakeholders, ensure you are not making the process too safe by only asking for feedback from those you know will sugarcoat and perhaps only tell you what they think you want to hear. Now, it's time to take action. Take five minutes to send a quick e-mail to someone you would like to ask for feedback. You can use a very simple script to draft your message. For example, "Hi. I'm doing a piece of personal development work and I'm seeking insights from those I work with and value the opinion of. I'm keen to get your views on XYZ. What do think is working well and what you think I can do even better? I'd really value your honest input because I want to be as effective as possible in this skill or in this work, over the next three months. This is going to help me to take my performance to the next level, and also support the work the team is doing. Let me know a good time for you to chat and we can catch up in person or online. Thanks for your help." Ask someone for feedback today. Take this as an experiment to also reflect on how you feel receiving feedback. 7. Monitoring the Effectiveness: It's not enough to have a feedback conversation and then jump right into your next meeting. What we want to do is follow up over the coming days and weeks to check in on progress and track against what was discussed. You can then support and help the other person to course-correct, giving them confidence and direction. Many companies use performance development plans to record and measure progress, but it's important to see this as more than a tick box exercise where we complete the documents and we hardly ever refer back to it. We want active progression to become part of everyday behavior. At the end of a feedback conversation, be sure to do the following collaboratively, Firstly, decide on next steps and what success looks like and what smaller milestones will indicate progress in the right direction. Discuss how you can support the other person. Even if someone is more senior, you can still offer your assistance. Then you want to determine when you will be reconvening, so let the other person lead on this by asking, when would be a good time for us to get together again on this, and commit to this as seriously as you would to a meeting with your CEO, setting up recurrent touch points to discuss progress. Then think about what could derail progress and together map out ways to remove or reduce any obstacles that can get in the way. You might also want to restate the way forward verbally or maybe later via an email if you feel that it is important to reinforce the message. Finally, agree on how you will together celebrate success when your goal has been achieved. Think about the person you want to give feedback to, consider what good looks like by answering the questions in the class worksheet when agreeing on those next steps. What is the vision or end goal? What does success look and sound like? How will we know that positive change is occurring? Who and what is needed to sustain performance? 8. Final Thoughts: Thank you so much for joining me in this class. I hope you found it helpful whether you're looking to have a feedback conversation with a direct report or even your boss. Feedback conversations are not easy, so rest assured you are not alone. We can't predict your outcomes, but we can get more comfortable by practicing and remembering that we are doing the other person a favor by providing them with feedback. My final piece of advice for you is to take action. If we're going to make progress, we need to do something differently. You've already invested time watching this class, so make it count. We want to create habit change and it starts today. Look back at your worksheets and highlight the number one thing you want to take action on right now. It could be that you'll simply review your completed worksheet before the end of your day. You might want to take time to work on your virtual background for future meetings. Or you might finally reach out to the person you've been putting off having a conversation with; and I'd love to hear how you get on. Please do get involved in the discussion section or get in touch with me directly. Let me know what's working, what you're stuck with, and how I can help you to move forward with your challenges. Thanks again and see you soon.