Understanding the feedback is crucial. It makes you well aware of what's it about, and putting clear plan on addressing the issues in the feedback is as important as well.
I really enjoyed your article, but I have an opposing view about an advice you give
"If only 1 out of 10 talks about the level of your code deliveries, then you should better ignore it."
Actually I'd argue that those are sometimes some of the best advices you can get, some people have trouble talking about some aspect of a person, and maybe this "singularity" is the only person courageous enough to talk about it. It shouldn't be dismissed directly
Sometimes, there is only one person in your team that worked with you on a certain aspect (for example if there is only one product manager in your team, they may be the only person qualified to talk about your understanding of the product"
Also, most people focus on the big picture, and that's okay, but if we receive an "outlier" feedback, I think we shouldn't be dismissive of it on the ground of "there is only one feedback about this"
Of course we can't please everyone, and we can't be perfect everwhere, but we can get some good insights out of every feedback, but as you said, we shouldn't get drowned by over-the-place blurbs.
It makes perfect sense to find what truth you can find thanks to that feedback.
I think it depends on the context of that feedback. Receiving specific and actionable feedback that would bring great impact to your work, then it may be only one feedback but better than all the other feedback received.
Still, if I were to generalize, I like treating feedback as a numbers game. If I receive a majority of feedback aligned in one direction, there's probably more truth there than in 1 outlier feedback
There are probably 10 areas where we could improve, and at times such as the beginning of the year, because of the effect you mentioned, we feel we could do all of them.
But I'd encourage everyone to list those 10 things, then cross out 9 and find one thing that you'll become really, really good at this year.
In my experience, this works because when the fresh start effect dies out, you realize:
- you aint got much time
- 7 out of 10 goals were "nice to have" other than areas where you want and can improve.
There is nothing wrong with setting ambitious goals, but I like to keep it real. Ali shared The Wheel of Life concept in this video https://youtu.be/c_DOG_mXz5w?si=6YzrG7sqLxgBmFK4 that's applicable not only career improvements but also other areas of life.
After doing this for 4 years, I realize which areas I have been leaving unattended and I can reprioritize my focus.
Something I also like is that if I have 10 areas to make small improvements, I divide and conquer.
It's common to try to tackle the 10 of them in January and fail. But if I were to do one area for each month of the year, I'd even have 2 months of buffer for the unexpected.
Understanding the feedback is crucial. It makes you well aware of what's it about, and putting clear plan on addressing the issues in the feedback is as important as well.
Very well crafted piece, Fran!
Working backwards from goals or objectives has been a challenging but incredibly valuable shift for me.
I started trying it out when I first did my Maven course and needed to work backwards into, "How am I going to finish this by X date"
But now I find myself doing it more and more for other things too, like my annual goals.
Thanks so much for the mention in the article, Fran!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Jordan
It's challenging to think of the end state when we have not even started.
I take your experience as inspiration :)
I really enjoyed your article, but I have an opposing view about an advice you give
"If only 1 out of 10 talks about the level of your code deliveries, then you should better ignore it."
Actually I'd argue that those are sometimes some of the best advices you can get, some people have trouble talking about some aspect of a person, and maybe this "singularity" is the only person courageous enough to talk about it. It shouldn't be dismissed directly
Sometimes, there is only one person in your team that worked with you on a certain aspect (for example if there is only one product manager in your team, they may be the only person qualified to talk about your understanding of the product"
Also, most people focus on the big picture, and that's okay, but if we receive an "outlier" feedback, I think we shouldn't be dismissive of it on the ground of "there is only one feedback about this"
Of course we can't please everyone, and we can't be perfect everwhere, but we can get some good insights out of every feedback, but as you said, we shouldn't get drowned by over-the-place blurbs.
Anyway, great read, thanks for sharing !
Thanks for elaborating on it, Achraf.
It makes perfect sense to find what truth you can find thanks to that feedback.
I think it depends on the context of that feedback. Receiving specific and actionable feedback that would bring great impact to your work, then it may be only one feedback but better than all the other feedback received.
Still, if I were to generalize, I like treating feedback as a numbers game. If I receive a majority of feedback aligned in one direction, there's probably more truth there than in 1 outlier feedback
There are probably 10 areas where we could improve, and at times such as the beginning of the year, because of the effect you mentioned, we feel we could do all of them.
But I'd encourage everyone to list those 10 things, then cross out 9 and find one thing that you'll become really, really good at this year.
In my experience, this works because when the fresh start effect dies out, you realize:
- you aint got much time
- 7 out of 10 goals were "nice to have" other than areas where you want and can improve.
There is nothing wrong with setting ambitious goals, but I like to keep it real. Ali shared The Wheel of Life concept in this video https://youtu.be/c_DOG_mXz5w?si=6YzrG7sqLxgBmFK4 that's applicable not only career improvements but also other areas of life.
Thanks, Fran, for sharing this!
Thanks, Akos for sharing your thoughts!
I am fully aligned. In my yearly review, I intentionally put areas of life "in maintenance". I know I won't focus on those, and that's fine.
This is the template I use to make an overview of all these areas: https://alexvermeer.com/8760hours/
After doing this for 4 years, I realize which areas I have been leaving unattended and I can reprioritize my focus.
Something I also like is that if I have 10 areas to make small improvements, I divide and conquer.
It's common to try to tackle the 10 of them in January and fail. But if I were to do one area for each month of the year, I'd even have 2 months of buffer for the unexpected.
This is excellent. We're about to try this wheel of life thing at home, but I'm definitely checking the PDF first 🙂! Thank you.
hey Fran, thank you for mentioning my article.
Thanks to you for sharing the concepts, Neo!