FEEDBACK

A reproduction of a classical painting showing a woman from behind standing in front of a mirror, with her reflection visible. The room has muted blue-gray walls, a reddish-brown chair on the left, and the painting is overlaid with the word 'Feedback' in white text at the bottom left.

It's taken me a while to get my head around the giving and receiving of feedback.

I mean I know all about its place in the corporate workplace and that when used as a healthy, reciprocal tool there it can yield great results, but too often I found it to be weaponised by the manager or director in their relationship with a member of their team, at which point of course it ceases to be feedback and becomes something rather more controlling and sinister.

So perhaps it was a hangover from that kind of experience which made me wary of it having a place in a loving relationship - far safer to look for strokes and unwaveringly kind and supportive words that shore us up. 

But where's the growth opportunity in that? If we trust and respect the person from whom we've requested feedback, granted it can sometimes be a little uncomfortable, but also extremely useful to hear and think about.

And perhaps it is in the asking for feedback where the growth starts. All we're asking for is a little water to be poured on our seed and soil.

Jem