Whenever delegates attend a learning & development activity they can have a variety of different mind-sets and these are influenced by a number of factors: Did they receive a pre-course briefing from their manager to explain why they have been selected and what the learning objectives are? Have they had a really traumatic and negative training experience in the past? Did they have a stressful journey to the venue? The mind-set that we all have affects the way people perceive us.
In recent weeks I’ve been delivering a sales programme covering a variety of diverse and interesting topics and one of the first things I ask them to do is quite uncomfortable for them – I ask them to write their first impressions of everyone else in the room on a post-it note and give it to the person. The purpose of the exercise is to raise the individuals’ awareness of the immediate impact they can have on a prospective customer.
A golden rule in my book as a facilitator is that I never ask a person attending a learning activity to do something I’m not willing to do myself, therefore I asked all of the people who attended over the last 5 weeks to give their feedback on the first impressions that they had of me. Some of it surprised me but the most important thing about feedback is that when delivered correctly it can help an individual to improve.
I learned that from some people’s perspective their initial impression was that I was ‘crazy’ and ‘doesn’t take life too seriously’. Another simply stated 'Poor Man's Paul Hollywood!' The reality is I’m none those things (except maybe the Paul Hollywood bit!), but my behaviour was interpreted that way by some of my delegates. On the back of this feedback I have consciously been far more ‘in the moment’ and ‘present’ when I meet new people for the first time and very mindful of the words that I use along with my overall communication style.
My question to you all is how often do you seek objective feedback and if you do, what do you do with it? Self-awareness and Emotional Intelligence are tremendous attributes to possess but they both need to be worked on and continuously improved.
The comments that I received stung a bit initially but have really helped me to improve. Feedback truly is ‘the breakfast of champions’!