Lazy Career Feedback!
BEWARE of feedback like this!☠️
- You need to be more ‘strategic’
- Show me you’re ‘innovative’
- I want to see more ‘leadership’
- You need better ‘executive presence’
All of this may be true, but as feedback it’s useless.
Executive presence is 100% learnable
If you know me, you know I can’t stand feedback like, ‘You need better executive presence”.
It’s vague.
It’s lazy.
And it doesn’t provide you with actionable steps to getting better.
So many women I’ve spoken with have received this feedback when being told why they aren’t in senior leadership yet.
And honestly, it’s total BS.
That’s the bad news. But here’s the good news.
I have cracked the code on executive presence. And it’s totally learnable stuff.
It’s NOT some special superpower that you either have or don’t have.
And it’s absolutely something you can develop.
In order to be effective, feedback needs to be specific and actionable.
I would have no idea what action to take from the feedback above. I’ve been there, and it’s beyond frustrating when on the receiving end.
The truth is that many leaders don’t know how to give you actionable steps to project better leadership or to showcase that you’re strategic or innovative
So what can you do?
If you’re a leader, put the effort into creating specific and actionable outcomes that you want to see.
And if you’re receiving feedback like this, ask for some specific examples of how you can demonstrate these qualities.
Find out exactly what your boss would want to see from you in order to say, “She’s innovative” or “She’s a leader”.
Then, in your future meetings, bring examples of how you’re demonstrating these behaviors, and confirm that it’s what they want to see.
And if your boss can’t give you these specific examples, consider looking outside your organization for help.
Remember, it’s your career. You have the most to gain by investing in your own development. ✌️💜
