Why Feedback is Important
“We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.” – Bill Gates
Most of us know instinctively that feedback, providing it’s constructive, can be a good thing. The right feedback can help us improve our performance in all sorts of ways, especially if it’s given soon after the event and is specific rather than general. Feedback is not only a catalyst for self-development, but it also increases our self-reflection and self-assessment and is essential for developing and sustaining a growth mindset. And all this leads to long-term performance improvement.
It’s why, for example, elite athletes have coaches. Coaches analyse every aspect of an athlete’s performance and then provide feedback and constructive criticism on what’s working well and what they should do more of, less of, or differently in order to improve. It’s this feedback that takes the athlete’s performance to the next level.
And if you stop to think about it, it’s not just athletes that use feedback to boost their performance. From singers to racing car drivers, writers to doctors – they all know the power of feedback.
In business too, many of us regularly seek feedback – either from colleagues, managers or mentors, to help us sharpen existing skills, and develop new ones, all with the aim of helping us to grow, develop, and improve our performance. And that includes our presenting skills.
The Power of Feedback to Boost Presentation Performance
“Without feedback, you’re flying blind.” – Ken Blanchard
There’s no doubt that feedback can be an incredibly powerful enabler when it comes to presentation skills. But, and this is a BIG but, how many times have you asked for feedback following the delivery of a presentation and been told ‘You were great’. And when you pause, hoping for something more constructive, you get the response, ‘Yea, really good, you smashed it.’
Now, to be sure, this can be nice to hear. Even reassuring. But is it useful feedback? No, not at all. And, having received this type of feedback, most of us walk away knowing that there were areas where we could have improved – but we don’t know which areas, and so we keep doing what we’ve always been doing.
The Best Ways to Ask for Presentation Feedback.
“Feedback is a gift. Ideas are the currency of our next success. Let people see you value both feedback and ideas.” – Jim Trinka and Les Wallace
If you’ve ever been asked to provide feedback, you’ll know that it isn’t always easy. This can be because we’re often asked to provide it on the spot, and therefore, we may not have had enough time to think through the feedback we want to give – so we default to the easy option, saying everything was fine. Giving feedback can also be scary if we’re in any way intimidated by the person requesting it – this can be because they are senior to us or if the relationship is a high-stakes one. The default option in this case is to play it safe and say that everything was great. Finally, many of us fear that we might upset the other person if we’re too honest. So, the default is to be nice and say that everything was terrific.
So, if you want to help others to give you feedback so that you can improve your presenting skills and success, the first thing to do is to tell the person you’d like feedback from BEFORE you deliver your presentation. Telling them in advance is critical as this will ensure that they focus fully on you delivering your presentation, and therefore, their feedback will be detailed and well thought through. Then, use one or more of the techniques below to make sure the feedback you get is as useful as possible.
- Ask for advice
A Harvard Business School paper written by Hayley Blunden and colleagues found that compared to those asked to give feedback, those asked to provide “advice” suggested 34% more areas of improvement and 56% more ways to improve – which is a staggering difference! In other words, when you ask someone for advice, you are far more likely to receive detailed, actionable comments aimed at potential future improvements.
- Be specific
Rather than simply asking someone for feedback (or advice) on a presentation you’re about to deliver, be specific about what you want the feedback/advice on. For example, you might say:
- ‘I’ve been told before that I tend to rush and sound nervous when I’m presenting, so I’ve been working on techniques to improve my delivery so that I come across as more confident and in control. Can you give me feedback on how you think my pace was, please, and also if I sounded more relaxed?’
- ‘I’ve spent a lot of time making sure a) that the narrative for today’s presentation is punchy and to the point and b) that my recommendations are clear and persuasive. Can you give me feedback on these areas, please?’
- ‘This afternoon’s pitch is critical for the business. I’d love your advice on how we could make our offering even more differentiated and compelling for the client.’
- ‘I want to make sure next week’s conference presentation is super engaging for everyone in the room. Can you give me advice as to how I did and how I can ramp up my delivery and stage craft to ensure my conference presentations are even more engaging in the future.’
Ultimately the more specific and direct your request for feedback or advice is, the more specific and direct the feedback or advice you receive will be.
- Score out of 10
An alternative to asking for feedback or advice is to ask for a ‘Score out of 10’. This could be for the whole presentation or for specific elements within it. It’s rare that people will give a rating of 10 out of 10, because nothing and nobody is ever perfect. So, let’s say after the presentation, you’re given an 8 out of 10. The next question to ask is ‘What could have made it a 10 out of 10?’. This will invariably prompt the person to give you meaningful feedback and advice which almost certainly will help you to improve in the future.
Additional Tips for Receiving Feedback
“True intuitive expertise is learned from prolonged experience with good feedback on mistakes.” – Daniel Kahneman
- Be future focussed. Instead of asking for feedback on what you did wrong try asking for tips on how you can improve your performance in the future. Not only will people be more honest of you ask them in this way, the advice they give is likely to be a lot more helpful.
- Dive deeper. Ask for specific feedback. For example, asking questions like “What could I have done differently to have got a more positive outcome from this afternoon’s meeting?” or “Do you have any ideas for how I could have involved the audience more during my presentation?” will help people to provide detailed feedback and suggestions. Also, ask people for feedback on a regular basis. The more often you ask for feedback, the more comfortable people will feel giving it to you.
- Accept feedback with grace. If you’ve asked for feedback, then you have to be prepared to receive it, both positive and negative, in a mature and open way. The best advice is honest advice, so thank them for their input and let them know how this will help you in future meetings and presentations.
- Take notes. This is a great tactic to show that you are taking the feedback seriously, and the natural pause in conversation created while you make notes often leads to them offering additional and more detailed advice.
The Importance of Constructive Criticism in Business
“Mistakes should be examined, learned from, and discarded; not dwelled upon and stored.” – Tim Fargo
Creating a culture of continuous feedback is great way to help people and teams to improve, learn and ultimately boost performance. It can also increase morale, engagement and motivation.
When designing feedback systems, it’s important to build mechanisms that encourage ‘pulling’ feedback, where employees seek out the advice, rather than ‘pushing’ feedback, where feedback is unsolicited and potentially negative.
How Our Individualised Communication Coaching Can Improve Your Performance
If you want feedback to boost your communication, presentation, pitching or conference-speaking performance, talk to us. All our programmes incorporate multiple videoed practise sessions using your own material, together with expert feedback and individualised coaching. Plus all our training programmes are tailored for your business and personalised for your people’s development. So why not get in touch?
For nearly 20 years we have been known as the Business Presentation Skills Experts, training and coaching thousands of people in an A-Z of global and local organisations. View our presentation skills training and coaching reviews to check out what they say about our programmes.
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