I am noticing when I give feedback intend to use too much advocacy and not enough inquiry. While my intent is to offer solutions to help the person improve it often lands with them interpreting this is how I want things done. I need to do a better job of using more inquiry when providing feedback to first make sure the person is clear on their roles and responsibilities, agrees they have fallen short in meeting expectations and to hear what obstacles / confusion might be contributing the lack of performance. My goal is to shift to much more inquiry in the coming months.

Secondly I am practicing the discipline of  "do nothing"  when it comes to feedback trying to be a lot more selective on what areas I want to provide feedback on. I realize in my current role as founder and president anything I might give feedback on will likely be seen as a top priority and I know that if people feel they have too many priorities they will be confused, overwhelmed and exhausted. I have seen this a lot in the area of marketing where I have a lot of passion and energy. Until I have always tried to retain control over marketing but use assistants with limited capacity and experience to try and manage my marketing initiatives. This has failed every time because I tend to have too many priorities and thus end up giving feedback when they fall short. It was not til i hired Skip Cass and handed everything off to him did I realize the importance of getting a senior person in this role an slept them determine the priorities. The feedback I am giving skip is more input and review with a little approval but not much decisioning and he is driving the priorities

with care,

Steve Hall
driversselect