By Neil Phillips.

Whenever I’ve coached someone who works in a corporate setting, one of the most dreaded time of year for them is the “periodic review.”  I’ve never met anyone who looks forward to a review—even the ones who are sure that it’s going to be positive.

On the other hand, any coach will tell you that feedback is a key part of their job.  The International Coach Federation even requires coaches as part of their core competencies to be “clear, articulate and direct in sharing and providing feedback.”  Feedback is the straight line to self-improvement, unseen insights, and corrective measures. Unless you have feedback, you won’t change.

The core disconnect is that we often see job performance as different from feedback.  My guess is that this is true for people in both company settings and solopreneurs.  Just imagine how your life would be different if:

  • You ask your vendors for feedback!
  • You ask your customers for feedback!
  • You ask your peers, direct reports, and colleagues for feedback!
  • You ask your boss (or upline) for feedback after you complete every project!

In short, you seek out reviews every opportunity that you can.

The results will be stupendous!

  • You’ll get so used to people telling you what you do well and what you can change that it will become your normal operating procedure. You will be on a slope to continuous improvement.
  • Your performance blind spots will get smaller and smaller.
  • You won’t worry about a bad performance review because either it won’t happen or you are prepared for it.

Regardless of whether you are in a company or own your own business, your change process starts at the same place.

Start by being brave.  Once you start down the path of soliciting feedback, it will get easier.  You just need to take that first step.  There’s an old saying: If you eat a frog first thing in the morning the rest of your day will only get better.  Eat your frog!

If you don’t like the course you are taking, this feedback process will support you in finding a new one.

There’s an old saying that if you have to eat worms, you should eat the biggest one first and everything will seem easier after that.

When will you eat your worm?

We know it’s probably not what you want to hear, but Team Connections Pro would love to help you eat worms.

We can support you through those first steps, help you develop an improvement strategy, and keep you on track through your process.  As part of Team Connections Pro, you get access to all of our training materials as well as two power coaching calls every month.  And after you develop your improvement process, you can leave TCPro with no hidden charges or fees.  Maybe you want to start on those worms soon?  We’re ready when you are.