The importance of feedback in running a successful business and shaping good business leaders can’t be possibly overstated. However, not much has been documented about the impact of feedforward and the changes it can bring to a leader’s character. In fact, many leaders swear by the significance of feedforward in their development and regard it to be more useful than feedback.
How feedforward scores over feedback
While feedback asks the people to take a step back and analyze the happenings of the past, feedforward actually encourages the person to look into the future and take a positive view of things. One of the other things that make feedforward an amazing development mechanism is that anyone can offer you a constructive feedforward, including the people who don’t know you or your activities. From the giver’s point of view also, feedforward can be a great way to express his thoughts without sounding negative. As a leader, this tool can help you to be constructive and not critical while expressing your thoughts. An instance can be when rather than telling your subordinate what was wrong in his performance in the last project, you can tell him about what he should do in his next project. In short, you can turn your feedback into positive guidelines for the future in the form of feedforward.
When feedback works
Feedback has a special characteristic – it can be extremely specific. Despite its significance, feedback remains an underused tool in business organizations. It usually works best in organizations where the executives seek feedback on their own rather than being forced to take a feedback. For a leader trying to get the best out of his subordinates, feedback serves as a great tool since it can groom the leaders of future by pointing them where they went wrong and can improve. As long as you, as a receiver or provider of feedback, are taking it constructively, the feedback can only give you a positive outcome.