It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been working at your company; you can always ask for feedback on your work performance. This is the only way you would know that you are meeting the personal career goals that you have set. Instead of relying on conjecture, you’ll know what your bosses think of your performance. At this point, you might be hungry for feedback because you know it will help you improve your professional work but you don’t exactly know how to ask for it from your superiors.
Relax. Know that it’s normal to ask for feedback from your boss. It’s part of their job to evaluate your performance and for transparency purposes, provide you with a review of your work.
When you ask for feedback, the management will feel your concern for the company and your initiative to meet what is expected from you. The management sees that you are proactive and committed to giving your all in improving your skills so you could be a better teammate to your colleagues. Your boss will also see how dedicated you are in achieving your career goals and how you strive for excellence.
Feedback will help you know what your strengths and weaknesses are, what you have to maintain and what you have to change. This honest evaluation of your work will help you contribute more aptly to a team project that will benefit the company. By having the courage and initiative to request feedback, you discover more of your limits, how far you could push past your boundaries and when it’s time to tell yourself that you’ve done the best that you could. Feedback will also lead to getting valuable advice and mentorship from your bosses who have already gone through what you’re experiencing now.
Most importantly, you build professional relationships that are honest and reliable in guiding you throughout your career.
A workplace with a culture of open and transparent communication benefits both employees and employers. Your goals are aligned to provide efficient work that will help propel the company to success. You are able to help one another in times of distress and conflict. You don’t hide opinions and thoughts that may harbor hate against someone and are only destructive to productivity. We listed down the benefits of being open in the workplace, enough to be comfortable to ask for feedback.
Feedback helps improve work performance.
You can quickly ask for feedback for an output you have just passed or any task you have just accomplished. When asking for one, know what your goal is, appreciate the good comments, and listen to the criticisms. Don’t hesitate to ask follow-up questions if something leaves you confused.
Tip: For work efficiency, invest in tools such as standing desks or standing desk converters to sharpen your focus and be able to shift from a sitting to a standing position and vice versa.
Feedback builds a rapport between you and your boss that is honest, open and transparent
Your professional relationships will thrive with honesty and the drive to continuously improve as a skilled employee and team player in the office. It will eventually help you advance towards your professional career goals.
The initiative to ask for feedback will make you a viable candidate for promotion.
It shows your boss that you are proactive and committed to delivering your best at work. You raise your chances for a promotion when your boss notices that you yearn to grow professionally with the company.
Feedback will help you correct your mistakes right away.
Sometimes, we don’t see what our mistakes are or where we are lacking at so we need an extra pair of eyes to tell us what could be wrong or better in our jobs. When we become open to this, we will be able to change the bad habits and mistakes so that we become a better team member of our department.
Feedback gives you free mentorship from your superiors
Tap into the knowledge and wisdom of your boss to excel in your industry. Along with their feedback comes advice which no book can give you. Your boss knows through experience what must be done in certain situations and you get access to this information when you have the courage and openness to ask and hear feedback. You will also understand the operations of your company in a larger picture which will help you devise ways on how you could better contribute to the success of the company.
So how exactly would you ask for feedback?
1. Set an appropriate time to ask for feedback.
Be sensitive to the daily operations of your department at the company. Don’t ask for feedback when you are tight with deadlines or working on a big project. Aside from this, timing is everything.
According to Indeed.com, an ideal time to ask is when you’ve been assigned to a new role or learned a new work skill. When you ask for feedback right away, you will know what you need to develop and improve.
Observe your boss as well and if he or she is busy with something, do not approach to ask for personal feedback. They won’t be able to provide you with clear and honest feedback anyway. It should be during a slow day that you’d want to ask for feedback.
And when you ask for feedback, give them time to think about it and write it for you. Patiently wait and you’ll be rewarded in the end. You could also choose what type of feedback you want to receive, be it a face-to-face meeting or an email correspondence.
2. Write down questions for your evaluator to answer.
Once you’ve set a meeting or you’ve already opened the door for feedback, maximize the opportunity by preparing questions you want to know the answers for. Of course, to get clear and quality answers, your questions must also be clear. For instance, your questions could revolve around how you would be a better support system for your team members, how to improve your time management, and what are the needed skills that are lacking in you at the moment. Ask about specific situations and issues in detail so that you could move forward with clarity.
3. Write down notes from your evaluation.
Have a notebook and pen with you. Jot down anything that will strike you during your dialogue. When you take notes, your boss can see that you value the information and feedback that you are receiving. Look back at your notes and you’ll be able to evaluate yourself as well.
Final Words
The feedback will only be useful if you apply it to your work ethic. Take time to reflect on everything you heard and work on what’s in your priority list. Have a strategy or game plan on how you could improve based on the feedback that you received. Of course, do not forget to show your boss how much you appreciate the feedback. Send a heartfelt thanks.