How To Get The Feedback You Need To Ace Your Career Goals

Did you know that up to 90% of employees hate their ‘annual performance review’? Are you one of them?
Feedback is a critical element in developing your career. Consequently, if you are waiting for your annual review to get feedback, this is not sufficient.

Not only are people afraid to ask for feedback, but often people also are not that too excited to give feedback as well.

Here are 6 ways to get the right feedback you need to ace your career goals

1. Don’t ask for general feedback, be specific

Instead of asking someone to ‘give you general feedback,’ link it to an actual outcome or deliverable. Example if you have just delivered a presentation, ask your boss, colleague, how that went. This approach is a non-threatening way to ask for feedback and in this way you may get very specific actionable feedback.

2. Always ask for examples

When you get feedback such as “You need to be more assertive in meetings,” this is not helpful. To get into the detail of your developmental areas and strengths, ask for an example. In this way, you can reflect on your interactions and behaviour and make a concerted effort to either build on what you did well or address what did not go well.

3. Aim to get ‘360’ feedback

Aim to get feedback from other people besides your boss. When you request feedback from others, always ‘put them at ease’ by asking for their input on a particular outcome. Phrase it in a way that puts them at ease so that they can give you meaningful feedback. Example, ask your team member for their feedback on a meeting you just ran. In this way, they are giving feedback on your work and not on you. By directing the feedback on your output, people would feel more at ease to give you the feedback.

4. Make feedback ongoing

If you are waiting for your ‘annual’ review to get feedback, this is a huge mistake. Feedback must be ongoing and real-time to make a real impact. So its June, and you delivered a deliverable in January, and you are only hearing now that it sucked? You missed out on five months’ of growth where you could have implemented the feedback.

[bctt tweet=”Feedback must be ongoing and real time to make a real impact. ” username=”cherralle_”]

5. Own your feedback

You need to make a concerted effort to get the feedback that you need. The reality is that the onus is on you to drive your feedback, so the first step is with you. [bctt tweet=”The best person to ‘manage your career’ is you, not your manager or mentor.” username=”cherralle_”]

6. Remember to build on your strengths

A growing body of evidence is showing that by focusing on enhancing your strengths you could be more productive and engaged. Reflect on what you really do well, and how you can capitalize on these to enhance your performance at work and in your personal life. Yes you need focus on your development areas, so that you reach an acceptable level within them. But guess what, if you also apply effort into building and enhancing your strengths this can make you phenomenal in your career and personal life.

Making the effort to get feedback can have a significant impact on your career if you act upon it. Hence, take the feedback and work through it yourself or with a mentor.

In which ways do you ensure that you get the right feedback? Share this post if it help you today!

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Up Your LinkedIn Game – 6 Tips for the Savvy Professional

Do you only think of LinkedIn as a place for you to dump your CV? Think again. Whether you are looking for work or just wanting to maintain your professional brand, LinkedIn is one of the most important social networking tools for professionals.

Have you loaded your profile on LinkedIn ‘half heartedly’ or have not yet created one at all? Don’t worry, I got your back, here is how to up your LinkedIn game now.

A LinkedIn picture is worth a thousand words

First impressions last, and your profile picture is your first impression.

Project an image on LinkedIn of someone who is open, reliable and trustworthy. Even LinkedIn gives the following advice: no party animal pictures, no baby and mommy pics, no pics showing us how much you love your cat.

Tip: Have a professional profile picture taken. If your work is more informal, still have a professional picture taken but in a more relaxed environment.

Write a comprehensive and captivating summary

Your experience summary is critical, this is where you provide an overview of the value you bring, and it entices people to want to know more about you. Include your most notable achievements, a summary of your superpowers, and close with what makes you unique. Consider how many profiles a recruiter will read in a day, make your summary is ‘scannable.’

Tip: This entails writing copy that is light, not text heavy, and uses subheadings and bullet points where appropriate.

Be searchable

Think of LinkedIn as a mini Google, and so you need to be ‘searchable’. Use key words in your profile that is related to your job and skill set so that the right people may find you and so that LinkedIn can make suggestions personalised to you. Be descriptive (don’t make stuff up) and as succinct as possible using key words.

Tip: Use your key word e.g. Visual Design, in your title, and throughout your experience summary and through every element of your profile.

Claim your custom LinkedIn URL

Grab your custom link URL, here with the steps from LinkedIn. Go to profile, edit profile, and edit profile URL. The standard allocated URL from LinkedIn is https://www.linkedin.com/in/name-surname-893a6954/. When you claim your URL you can drop the hyphen and numbers at the end. It just adds a nice finishing touch to your profile. Also it looks neat when you put it on your business card or email signature.

Tip: Claim your name as your URL it just makes your life so much easier.

Network, network, network

Aim to have at least 100 professional connection on LinkedIn. These need to be meaningful connections, of colleagues, business partners, and clients. Also, you may also search for groups which are relevant to your job, industry, and passion and join these. Joining groups will allow you to further build your professional network.

Tip: Join the Alumni network from your university or college, this is good way to build an authentic network on LinkedIn.

Endorsements and Recommendations

Endorsements are ‘virtual’ likes that any people can tick for your listed skill sets. However, a recommendation is a personal reference from one LinkedIn user to another. You may request a LinkedIn recommendation from LinkedIn itself, and these are the steps. A LinkedIn recommendation is a powerful way to add value to your professional brand.

Tip: Reach out to coworkers, bosses, clients whom you delivered excellent quality work for and request a recommendation.

An updated LinkedIn Profile is critical

Today, having a LinkedIn profile is not optional – it is pretty much expected that every professional will have an up to date LinkedIn profile. It is really dodgy if you don’t have one!

First time manager? 6 Smart Tips to go from good employee to good manager

So, you were doing well as an individual contributor, and due to your contribution, you were promoted to manager. Congratulations! Being responsible for a team is a whole new ball game, compared to when you were accountable for your individual contributions. Your first promotion to manager can be a sticky time in any career. Here are six smart ways to transition from individual contributor to manager.

First things first, you are still part of a team

Now that you are the manager do not get caught up in your own hype. You are still part of a team, and in fact, now you need to be more present and engaged in the team than ever before. Get to know your team members on a personal level, connect with them. Be available, accessible to your team so that you can coach and guide. Remember, it is no longer about how awesome you can be, but how awesome you can make others. It is a good idea to set up regular one on ones.

Feedback is a gift, give it freely

You now have a significant impact on someone’s career growth, this is a big responsibility, and you need to treat it as such. Be measured when you give feedback, but do give it. I have recently come across the Rose, Bud and Thorn method which can be used for performance feedback as well. You share the positives (rose), you share an opportunity for growth where the person can learn and build a new skill (bud), and you share development areas (thorn).

Don’t doubt yourself – lead with confidence

You are now leading a team of people who were possibly your peers at some stage. It is easy to start questioning your abilities to lead. You are even most likely leading individuals who are older and have more years of experience than you. You were given this position for a reason, and you need to trust in your capabilities.

Be flexible and adaptable

Understand that different people want to be engaged and managed in various ways. Some people need more independence whereas others require more contact time and guidance. You need to figure out that sweet spot with each of your team members that motivate them to give their best.

Set a structure with space for your team

It’s important that individuals in your team understand the goals that everyone is working towards. However, leave enough room in the ‘how’ for people to use their ingenuity. You need to use your discretion here, and also use your knowledge of how people like to work to figure this out.

Help your team become smarter and better than you are

So you were always one of the brightest at work? That is why you got promoted to manager. Now you need to hire people smarter than you, coach and guide people to achieve more than you. That is the journey of being a leader, and leveraging the best of a team. If you have people in your team who are better than you at various things. That is amazing. Let them shine and give them credit for their work

Do you have any tips that helped you as a new manager?

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