Helpful Feedback Strategies

Feedback is essential to growth. Another person's perspective is always useful for gaining a new insight. The first feedback article, and possibly my favorite so far, was titled Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback. It states how helpful feedback can be in all aspects of life especially for work and school. It's easier to grow and change when you have an idea of where you are and where you need/want to be. The "upward feedback' basically means that instead of focusing on the past, it's important to focus on the future for improvements. I somewhat disagree with this because yes, it is important to focus on the future, but keeping your past in mind is also almost as important. You have to remember your past mistakes to learn from them.

The other article I read was titled How To Give Students Specific Feedback That Actually Helps Them Learn. I like this article because it gives tips on how to give feedback and the tips are very useful. I agree with all of the different ideas they give such as it being goal-oriented, timely, and it is not vague. Feedback should have a purpose. It should be given in a timely fashion so that it is still relevant and useful in the near future. Feedback should also be straight to the point and specific so that the recipient is certain of what is being communicated. 

I feel fairly confident in giving others feedback. I think my main problem so far has been being too vague and not specific enough. That is definitely something I could improve on. 

Listening to feedback is important.

Source: Flickr

Edit: Due to internet problems, I realized this did not post properly. Thankfully, my post was saved and I was able to repost it. 

Feedback Thoughts

Receiving negative feedback is something difficult for just about everyone. The best thing to do with negative feedback, is to take it and turn it into something good to help improve yourself; However, that's easier said than done. Any feedback in general is beneficial to your writing because an outsider is able to give their point of view. In my opinion, I sometimes think my work is perfect the way it is, but it's easy to overlook things that other people may be able to see. 

Two years ago in one of my classes, we were supposed to write a few short papers. We always had the option of bringing them in to the professor early to get feedback. I wasn't too sure what grade I would get on the first paper, so I decided to bring it to my professor. My feedback was relatively positive with some minor adjustments he suggested that I should make. I was proud of my work, and happy because I only had a few things to change. When the next paper due date came around, I decided to bring my paper in early once again to make sure I was on track. This time, I received mainly negative feedback. I was quite upset, and felt the need to just restart altogether. I felt like I would be doing more work just trying to fix it. I worked hard to improve my writing, and in the end I received a better grade.

One article I read, Using Harsh Feedback to Fuel Your Career, definitely has some good advice on taking negative feedback and turning it into something positive. In my experience mentioned above, I think I used some of the advice from that article at least to some extent. I was upset for awhile, embracing my emotions, and then I decided to just put it past me and finish the work, prioritizing. 

The other helpful article I hope to use is titled 6 Bad Mental Habits That Sabotage Your Success. One of my biggest problems come from thinking negatively when something goes wrong. Of all the different points the article makes about mental habits, I realize that I do them pretty often. I make excuses when things get rough, believe in self-doubt, and put myself down. I think I could improve these mental habits if I realized that I was doing them in the moment. Sometimes I use the bad habits without even realizing it. 

Feedback to a Horse

Source: Flickr