No Hammering To Make An Impression

Luckily, I had a boss at Sky, Andy Melvin, who taught me: ‘Don’t just criticise, tell me why it’s bad and why it might get better.’

Here is a career insight from a much maligned live sport tv host.

As with many a-thing, you don't get to enjoy the longevity this man had without learning at least something. And this is indeed a decent steer.

I've done many sessions down the years on the specific topic of 'feedback'.

Going beyond mere Praise Sandwich, CEDAR-type mnemonics and Change Curve alignments.

One key pillar, is to tacitly have an established way for the imparting of feedback set up.

There's an ol' gag in this field featuring the giving of unsolicited feedback and teenager reactions.

When you couple this warning with a supposed 'rule', popular a couple years back - which I remix as; 'do not carelessly denigrate selling effort' - the above can act as most useful preface to feedback.

The wording there is fairly abrupt. Yet we can adapt. Whether dealing with Sales colleagues or prospect personalities.

'Can we show ourselves in [even] better light?'

'What about this option...'

A small idea, granted. This is but a two-step answer. And if it gets you going on the journey to gaining collaboration, improvement and success through deeper feedback acknowledgement, then it seems a good place to start.