When No News Isn’t Good News
How to Solicit Feedback on the Job
If you’ve been waiting for your annual performance review to receive feedback from your boss, you may be doing yourself — and your company — a big disservice. Christine McKay (MBA ’98), a career coach who works with students through MBA Career Services, urges her clients to be proactive when it comes to finding out how others view their work.
“Your employer is your primary customer. You need to make sure they are satisfied,” says McKay, president of Massachusetts-based McKay Partners, Inc. “When you wait until performance review time to talk about your progress, you are missing the chance to make midcourse corrections that might save your job or enhance your organization’s success.”
McKay notes that regular performance check-ins are particularly important when embarking on a new job or tackling more challenging projects. “Periods of professional growth are oftentimes when miscues happen,” she observes. “When you’re doing something for the first time and are unsure if you’re on the right track, resist the tendency to put your head down and just keep going.” The sooner you open a dialogue with your supervisor or colleagues, the more likely you will be to succeed.
McKay’s advice is in keeping with her overall philosophy on career management, which emphasizes “taking charge of your career and managing it the way you’d manage a business.” Too often, she notes, “people abdicate control of their careers to their employers. Your career is such an important part of your life. Why give someone else so much power over you?”
Seizing the initiative on soliciting feedback also provides the opportunity to structure communication in a way that makes sense for you. While a regular weekly, monthly, or quarterly session with a direct supervisor may work for some employees, others may want to ask several respected colleagues to serve as an informal “advisory board.” Whatever format you choose, says McKay, keep the following points in mind:
- If you aren’t receiving any feedback on your performance, it doesn’t mean everything is fine.
- Asking for evaluation shows that you are eager to do a good job and that you care about your role in the organization’s success.
- Try to weigh positive and critical feedback evenly. It’s human nature to focus on criticism while dismissing praise.
- When someone identifies a problem area, don’t become defensive. If a comment touches a nerve, take a step back to analyze why.
- Consider the validity of the feedback. Opinions are often subjective, but if you are getting the same advice from more than one source, take it to heart.
By taking the lead in soliciting feedback, employees gain valuable information to guide their next steps, says McKay. “You might find that you’re on the right track, but you might also discover that you need to plan for a change somewhere down the line,” she notes. “What you discover will put you in a better position to chart your own career course. The more information you have, the more you are in control.”
— Deborah Blagg
