It's hard for me to decide which is more difficult: giving or receiving feedback. But since there are numerous benefits to doing both in the workplace, I believe we should reasonably expect an employee to participate on both sides of this activity. The reason is simple. An organization needs feedback at the organizational level, just as humans need feedback on an individual level.
Just think: How well would you function if your stomach doesn't tell you when you're full? Or if your ears don't relay the sound of a fast-approaching vehicle? Or if your eyes don't show you where your hands are as you're threading a needle?
An organization is much the same. We know in our minds that it's important to stay coordinated with our colleagues, and everyone seems to lament the fact that often the left hand knows not what the right hand is doing. So, let's do something to connect our organizational senses.
Giving feedback is pretty straightforward: After each significant engagement with another individual within the organization, provide some feedback to explain the good, the bad and the ugly. The other individual can be anyone: a peer in your department, your manager, your direct report, a colleague in another part of the organization.
The challenges to meeting this straightforward expectation are mostly cultural. Do you feel that your feedback is valued? Are you afraid of giving feedback? Do you know how to give feedback in a professional manner that gets the point across while avoiding personal attacks? I believe it's a leader's job to remove these barriers to facilitate the critical flow of communications up, down and across an organization.
Receiving feedback is a bit more complicated, as two steps are involved. First, you have to create a channel through which feedback is created. Then, once feedback is received, you need to confirm receipt of the feedback and then act on it.
The appropriate action on feedback depends on whether the comment was positive or negative. If feedback was positive, then continue doing whatever it was that merited the support. If the feedback was negative, then adjust your behavior, explain your behavior or ask for further discussion of the comment.
The primary challenge to meeting this expectation is also cultural. How much feedback are you able to take? Positive feedback is always pleasant on the senses, but it's the negative feedback to which we need to pay the most attention.
After all, it's easier to adjust the oven temperature while baking than to salvage burnt cupcakes.
