573 | The Power of Regular Feedback

Hey folks, before we kick off today's episode, I wanna touch on something crucial that we like to call Fake Delegation. Ever do that? You think you delegate, but find yourself micromanaging or taking tasks back?

It's frustrating, right? You're left burnt out, your team slows down and your business doesn't grow. That's why we created five ways You Fake Delegate. It comes from our own combined experiences and challenges in business, and our desire to always serve you best.

We've been there, and this guide is our way of helping you navigate those delegation missteps. Grab it from the show notes, it's free, and might just change the way you lead.

Now onto our episode, We're getting to the heart of why feedback when done right can be one of the most powerful tools in a leader's arsenal. That is coming up next.

Welcome to the Chris LoCurto Show, where we discuss leadership and life and discover that business is what you do, not who you are. Welcome to the show, folks. I hope you're having a fabulous day wherever you are today, we're talking about something that is vitally important to all leaders and all team members as well, but tends to be one of those things that people shy away from the most.

It's, it's a difficult thing for people to feel comfortable in giving and receiving feedback. Now, today, we're gonna be talking about it mostly from the aspect of giving feedback and how powerful that is for you as a leader for your organization, for your culture, all of that, right?

But we also need to be thinking about what is it like for us to be able to receive feedback as well? Is it something that's too difficult? Is it something that we struggle with?

So, as we go through this process, I want you to be thinking about what it's like for you to receive feedback, because that's gonna give you some great insight into what it's like for one of your team members to receive feedback, right?

So if there's things that you struggle with, I will guarantee you there's somebody on your team struggling with it too. If not everybody on your team, it could be, it could be everybody on your team struggles with it as well.

So, as we get into this, let's talk about the power of regular feedback. Now, the key here is that the feedback is regular. What we tend to do is avoid a lot.

We tend to go through our day-to-day. We have expectations that may not have been clearly communicated. We have things that we're hoping people are going to do.

There is, you know, times we're trying to avoid discussions or giving feedback with team members. All of those things keep us from being able to give regular feedback. So why is that so difficult?

Well, the reason why that's so difficult is because how many times does feedback get received as criticism, right? And by that, what I mean is harsh criticism for a lot of people, giving feedback isn't as easy as just saying, Hey, I wanted to talk to you about something.

I wanted to bring up this thing that, you know, you're working on this deal over here and, and it looks like you're having some great successes on this. I'm checking to see if you have any questions or anything.

I'd also love to give you some feedback on what I'm seeing just to make sure that I am setting you up for success. Does that sound like something? That's okay.

What we tend to do is, Hey, don't do that. That way over there. Hey, you're not doing that the way that it needs to be done, right? Hey, you, you, you're, you know, I wanna make sure you don't mess that thing up.

The way that people tend to give "feedback" tends to sound like harsh criticism, right? Now, I'm, I'm not saying that it always is, and I'm not saying, I'm not even saying that it most of the time is, what I'm saying is, is our delivery method can be very offputting.

We've received feedback from people that was offputting, right? As leaders, you know, that you've had people, maybe it was a leader, maybe it was a teacher, a parent, a friend.

So as we get into the power of feedback, the thing I want you to understand is that power is absolutely destroyed if the person receiving the feedback receives guilt trips, shame, right?

Heavy criticism, any of those things are gonna keep the other person from receiving your feedback and utilizing it the best way they possibly can. So this is the place to start.

What does it look like? And I'll, I'll give some examples as we go throughout this, this episode, but what does it look like for me to make sure that I am not beating somebody over the head with information that I want them to have on something, that they're working on, something that they're doing something, you know, a job that they're completing, whatever, it's, so if I'll keep that in mind, then the great thing is, is that feedback can become very powerful.

Why? How can it be powerful? Well, it's not, you know, just think about the personal growth side. How much can you help somebody grow personally in their role in, in the culture, in personal life, if you're able to speak into their life?

Now, I know I've got a lot of folks out there who right now, as I'm talking about it going, Chris, you, you don't get it because I, I never do, Chris, you don't understand.

I have got all these millennials, or I've got these Gen Zs, or I've got got these folks that are just set in their ways.

There's always, it doesn't matter what the generation is. There's reasons why they can't receive good quality feedback. And I will be honest, I will, I will say that victim mentality has become incredibly vogue in society. It really has.

It's like the in thing to make sure that you're a victim and to get other people to side with you, that you're a victim.

I get it. Victim mentality sucks. And I hope that you don't have that on your team, but I'm sure that you do. So what do we do about it?

You know, if the first thing we say is, Chris, I can't even give quality feedback, because then we've already got a bigger issue.

Our bigger issue is, is we're not handling the, because we're not handling the stuff that's going on that's keeping us from being able to give quality feedback, right? So if that's something you're dealing with, then you gotta jump on that first.

But I'm also gonna suggest that perhaps you don't present yourself or the feedback in a way that would be, you know, in a way that would put somebody on the defensive in a way that somebody would choose to be a victim in that situation, right?

So if we are focusing on setting them up for success, then the way that we deliver this feedback should be one that's hopefully positive. Yeah, but what if the thing is a harsh thing or a negative thing?

Well, again, you just heard me give an example a few minutes ago of being able to step into something and, and do, as Ken Blanchard would say, that the sandwich of, Hey, here's something good, here's something we need to talk about, but here's some stuff that's good.

You know, I'm, I'm really glad you're working on this. You're doing a good job. You don't have to go right into feedback and make it heavy duty negative, right? Again, not all feedback is negative.

There should be a lot of good positive feedback. So even in that situation, I'm giving feedback, I'm giving two positives and one negative if it was even a negative.

So the goal is, is to not just use feedback on negative stuff. When are you finding your team doing things right? When are you finding your team doing things that aren't negative, that don't need a negative input?

Are you finding them killing it, doing a great job, making you proud? If so, tell them. A big part of the power of regular feedback is that people are hearing that they're doing things right.

You know, it's the old concept that I remember who made this popular way back in the day. I mean, way back in the day, but it's the, the old concept of the bank deposits and withdrawals. If I've put a lot of deposits into your bank, then I can take some withdrawals.

If, if I have to take a withdrawal, I can take a withdrawal. But if all I've done is take withdrawal after withdrawal after withdrawal, then guess what?

At some point, you're not gonna be able to listen to me, work with me, you know, stay on the same team as me, whatever it is. So the power of regular feedback is partly one, knowing how to approach somebody.

Two, making sure that you're giving more positive feedback than negative, right? You've got to make sure that people actually are hearing that you're proud of them, that you want.

Now, if somebody is just doing nothing but negative, well then that's a different discussion. That's a much different discussion.

There should be a whole lot of accountability in there, and we should be helping that person to either change or leave one or the other, right? So you need to be finding them doing enough stuff positive, a lot of stuff positive, right?

I, I'm not telling you to go promote them doing, you know, Hey, you did a good job stapling your papers again today, right?

I'm not even saying that you need to go compliment them on stuff that they should be doing naturally. For any of you who are parents, you understand this concept.

When your child comes out for the 400th time and says, oh, I made my bed. Yes, you should, at this point, you should be able to make your bed. It's been 400 times, right? You don't compliment stuff just to compliment, right?

Find things that they're doing that they're doing well and compliment on those things. But if it's just an everyday great job doing the same thing that you've done every single day for the last year, eh, that probably doesn't go so far, right?

I wouldn't call that a deposit into the bank, what I would call that as enabling. I would call that, you know, creating the opportunity for when they can't do something bigger or better, then it becomes a problem.

So let's, let's find them doing positive stuff, but let's not make it, you know, them doing their normal everyday stuff.

Third thing is, is how you deliver your message. How are you going to give them the feedback? I personally like to give feedback in a positive way if possible.

Not every time can I do that. Not every time is it always positive, but if I can say, you know, Hey, you're doing a great job on this project, I can see that you're 50% complete, I'm really happy with that. You're on time. That's great.

I do see a couple of things that I'd love to speak into. You know, I, I do see a couple of things that I'd love to give some advice on is, or even before I give that feedback, what I might say is, is, do you have any questions?

Is there anything confusing? Is there anything that you feel like, you know, you need some help implementing or, or discussing through to make sure you're on the, you know, we're on the same page and you're doing the right thing.

Asking perspective gathering questions is huge on being able to give feedback because it means that you're not just jumping in and telling them, Hey, here's the thing you're doing wrong.

Help them to know that you're there to help, help them to see that you're there to help them be successful. So, ask those fantastic questions that they're like, no, I don't have any questions. Okay, great.

Hey, there is some things I, I would like to speak into this thing over here. Whatever this thing is. You know, I, it looks as though possibly there might be some struggles on this.

So let me just ask some questions to find out what's going on. So now that you've pointed out the thing, ask some questions. Don't just say it's wrong. Don't just say they're, they're messing up. Find out, ask questions.

Find out what's going on so that you can see. Maybe there's a piece of information you, you don't know, you know, maybe there's something they haven't shared yet.

So, dig in, find out, ask perspective, getting questions, and then when you deliver your information, so let's say you, you find out they're not doing it correctly. Okay?

So here's what I would like for you to do positive deliver. Ask if they have any questions about it. Ask if they feel like they can, you know, that, that, if they'll be able to do that with success, positive, good feedback, right?

As you deliver that supposed negative, it doesn't sound so stinking negative. Now, what it appears to be is you came along to help out.

Sure, they're probably gonna feel a little bit, you know, like they're disappointing you or something like that, but at least they don't feel like you came in and go, went, you know, Hey, what the heck is going on over here? Why are you doing it that way? Right?

So you hit it with a positive feedback. Now, as we talked about, feedback is difficult to receive. What are some barriers that are gonna reduce the power of regular feedback?

First off, I'm gonna say is fear of failure. Fear of failure is probably the biggest thing that is gonna keep people from being able to receive feedback. That is just something that you've got to step in as a leader and recognize it, and then help them through it.

Quite often when I see in one of my team members or in a client that seems to be stuck in fear of failure, I'll just call it out. Hey, what are you afraid of? What are you struggling with? What are you experiencing right now? You know, I'll see what's going on and then just call it out.

And it gives them this freedom and ability to go, well, I'm afraid I'm gonna screw this thing up. Well, great, let's talk through that. What if you do, and that tends to be one of my best questions.

What if I'm afraid I'm gonna screw this up? What do, what if you do? What if you do screw it up? What does that even look like? How bad is that gonna be? Are you able to fix it? Are we able to do something about it?

And as you talk through those questions, then perspective is gained and fear of failure diminishes. Or maybe you are gonna screw it up. What's gonna happen when you do? Well, I'm afraid I'm gonna get my head ripped off.

Have you ever had your head ripped off here before? No. Okay. How do we solve it? You guys have heard me say this a thousand times.

What happened? How did it happen? Why did it happen? How do we fix it? And how do we make sure it never happens again? Boom. Yeah. That's what we do.

Okay? And then what happens after that? Nothing. We just get back to work. I don't rip your head off. No, your leader doesn't rip your head off. No. Okay, then quit being afraid.

You're gonna get your head ripped off. So fear of failure is huge. Pride, obviously is a massive reason. Pride, ego, those are always gonna be reasons why people don't receive feedback. Well, oh, I already know the answer. Oh, I've got this. Oh, you don't have to tell me that.

You know, all those stinking, silly little prideful comments, they're just ridiculous. Don't allow that to be something that keeps you from giving the much needed feedback in the moment.

Again, as I'm pointing to this, these are the negatives, right? If you're giving positive feedback, that's great. People still struggle with giving good, you know, receiving quality feedback. But you know, that's, that's okay.

You know, I happen to be one of those people who I'm not a great receiver of compliments. I don't, you know, I, I have, I feel like I've fixed that over the years to make it not look so awkward when I receive a compliment. But inside I'm still like, Ugh, I don't do well with that.

And there's many reasons for that, that would've to be a completely different episode. But pride is a struggle in receiving quality feedback. This perceived lack of time, one just is really a lame excuse.

Well, I don't have time for that. I don't have time to give feedback. They don't have time to receive feedback. We gotta go, we gotta hurry. Listen, the more I struggle with knowing whether or not I'm doing what you wanted me to do, the less productive I am.

So the more your team struggles and not knowing whether or not you're happy, proud, feel like they're doing the right stuff, the, the bigger chances that they're struggling inside and they're being less productive, but they're also probably not taking as big of risks.

Hey, leader, you want a team to take risks, right? I do. I want them to take risks because that means that they're doing something, they're accomplishing something.

If they're not taking risks and they're down their productivity, then I'm spending way more money than I need to. I want, I want, let's get some stuff done. Let's accomplish some things.

So when you were giving regular feedback, and again, I I, I think everybody immediately goes to the negative, you do not have to do that. Regular feedback can be, you did this really well.

Hey, I, I really appreciate the way that you accomplished this thing over here. Hey, that project got done faster than I thought it would.

What happened? How did it, you know, how did that happen? How do we duplicate that in the future? Giving that feedback can be hopefully more positive than not.

That needs to be your plan. How do I give more positive feedback than negative feedback? Where are some great opportunities for you to give quality feedback?

Well, a missed opportunity, because a lot of leaders are afraid of this is the one-on-one meeting. You need to be having one-on-one meetings with your team members. You need to have the opportunity to sit down with a team member, you know, outside of a group and just have a little bit of time talking through what's working, what's not working.

Now, with this, it's not uncommon for us to ask how are we doing as your leader? And get some feedback at that point. Find out for ourselves, what does this person think, right? But if you'll make sure that you're not avoiding that one-on-one meeting, then you will be able to experience the, the transformative impact.

I mean, they, they can be huge. When you guys embrace a one-on-one meeting, I'm telling you, we've been doing it for decades, and it's just vitally important to sit down with somebody, one-on-one and, and talk through stuff.

Even if it's partially personal. You know, maybe you're just asking how their family's doing. Maybe you're just asking how their vacation went, right?

That's giving you the opportunity to be trusted by the team member. Or if they can trust you, they can be vulnerable, right?

So spending time in the one-on-one meetings will be way more powerful than you think. Well, Chris, I don't really have a whole lot to talk about. Find some things, find them doing some things right?

Find some things you need to speak into. Give them feedback on what kind of a team member they've been on, how they handle the culture, on how they are leading team members, leading, you know, leaders, maybe they're leading up well. Spend some time letting them know.

Spend some time, you know, making sure that they understand how well they're doing. Make sure that you're going beyond just the benefits of the job. Performance reviews.

That's usually, believe it or not, that may be one of the only times a team member hears feedback is at a review. We don't do annual reviews. Why? 'cause we're spending time consistently with our team members reviewing them.

So when we'd get to a, a annual checkup, they already know where they are. They know, know what they can expect. They know what we expect, right?

If there's, if there's a struggle, they've already been communicated about that struggle multiple times, right? We don't get to a yearly timeframe and go, Hey, you've been screwed up the last six months.

That's just ridiculous. It's a waste of time. So, you know, make sure that you're doing it on a consistent basis if they're messing up so that they understand what to do to fix it, right?

So that way, when you get to a annual checkup of sorts, you got good things to say, right? It's not just, Hey, you need to work on this thing. And sometimes it's, we get into a checkup.

If somebody has to work on something, we don't even have to bring it up because they already know it, right? So get beyond just the, the performance review discussions, right?

Focus on things like building trust, you know, find ways to build trust. Find ways to be vulnerable so that they feel like they can be vulnerable, right?

Help them to understand, you know, and, and again, if I think that you're gonna use my vulnerability against me, I'm not gonna be vulnerable with you.

So work on those aspects, right? Helping, helping you to teach them they can trust you, right? That makes a big difference for a team member when you're giving feedback.

If I can trust and anticipate how you're going to be and how you're gonna deliver information, then it changes the way that I approach the discussions. And I'm not going into a meeting fearful because I'm afraid that, you know, you're gonna rip my head off because I did something wrong.

So, work on fostering open communication. It's huge. It, it, it will go such a long way in building your culture. It'll go such a long way in people being able to not feel like they have to hide things, you know, feel like if they screwed up, you know, our team, they understand if you screw up, spit it out, let's go.

We are way more concerned on fixing the problem than staring at you going, wow, you screwed something up. It's just, we don't have time. We don't have time for that.

Now, if you keep screwing the same thing up, well that, that's probably gonna be a different story. It's not probably, it is gonna be a different story, but if you screwed something up, spit it out. Let's go. Let's fix it. Let's solve it.

Let's do what's, you know, whatever it takes to get on the other side of this and move forward. So the more you focus on things beyond the performance aspect, the more information that goes beyond just how they're doing in their job.

You will find, you can start to influence things like their attitude. You can influence things like how they operate with, you know, inside a team dynamics.

You can influence things like how well they align culturally with your business. What you may discover is, is that you have incredible opportunities to guide them into following your culture, fitting into your culture, really well.

If there's any missteps or anything that doesn't seem to be aligning, it's a great opportunity for you to discuss that. Why is this something that's not aligning? Right?

Great opportunity for you to talk about how well they're doing inside of a team, or even give them input or influence. Maybe it's somebody who's new and you've got people on your team that have been there for years, and you can quickly give them insight on how to work inside that team.

Use things that go beyond just a performance review to help them to be successful in all areas. I mean, think about it. If they understand how to work better inside of your team, isn't that gonna make you more successful?

Think about it. This is your job leader. Help them.

There's many ways you can constructively give feedback that focuses on behaviors, that focuses on outcomes, not just personal traits, right?

Because here's the deal. The more I help a team member to see the expected outcome of a task, a role, a project, a team project, the more that they understand what the outcome is supposed to look like, the better chance they're gonna hit it, the better chance they're gonna execute it with excellence.

So the more I can focus on things like that, the more success I can see, the more successful the team is, the better overall. What about behaviors?

What about talking through good behaviors, ways that they've treated people? Well, I, one of the things I find myself doing a lot is talking about how great our team members are with dealing with our clients or dealing with the internal clients.

That's something I, I love to compliment 'em, man, you've just done a phenomenal job setting up the rest of the team for success in here. It's just been so impressive, right? I love to share that.

Why? Because people will repeat what they're rewarded for, but because it helps somebody to know that they're doing the right stuff, okay?

So that's how I should be acting. Yes. I love the way that you acted there. I love the way that you handled that. I love the way that you led that man.

I, I, I found out, I've, I've just found out, well, I didn't just find out, I found out the Monday staff meeting after our big Next-Level Leadership LIVE Event, that there was an accident that happened out on the road.

We have a, one of our nights is a, like a concert night. It's a what's called a writer's round. And we have just phenomenal artists that come in and we get to go in, have dinner, listen to these amazing writers and singers, and it's just an incredible time. We do that every year.

And while we're in there, we did not know that there was an accident that happened out with a big rig, a big truck and a small car got into an accident, and it was pretty heavy duty, apparently.

And we had our team members, some of our team members went out to help out, waiting for the cops to get there, waiting for the ambulance to get there.

One of our team members' mother, who's a doctor, was here at the event, and she came and got her, brought her out there to help out. None of us even knew what happened.

Well, we knew, we knew the accident when we were leaving, we could see that there was an accident. It was almost all cleaned up at that point, but we didn't even know that our team members jumped in to help stuff out.

Just so power- while the rest of us were inside, you know, enjoying the, the show. How powerful is it to know that our team is out there and if they needed more help, they would've gotten more help, right?

But our team jumped out there and, you know, I don't know how much they solved. If all they did was, was be there to be a comfort to the people in the, in the situation. Praise God. Hallelujah.

But I'm, I know Xavi's mom was out there as a doctor trying to help out the best way she possibly could. Guys, that's, that's something you just compliment the daylights outta great job.

That is our culture. That is what we do. You know, it's helping the, the, the gal on the side of the road with a flat tire, right? Or the guy on the side of the road, if you want me to be politically correct, which is just ridiculous.

But if somebody's on the side of the road with the tire that they need help fixing, stop and help 'em, lemme say it that way. Lemme say it that way.

It's just a, a great thing to know that you have people doing that. So compliment those things.

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Another thing is, you know, for us, we have conversations about cultural pieces. So we went into this big event, and one of the things that we talk about each year going into this event is, Hey, don't stress out.

You know, we have many new people on our team. You know, for some of you guys, you don't get to do the events that we do on a consistent basis. You only show up for this one event.

It's a big event, don't stress out, don't freak out. Things are going to fail. Things are going to go wrong. Our job is to do the best we possibly can on the front side to make sure nothing goes wrong.

And then when it does solve, solve, solve, being stressed out, being freaked out, the only thing that does is it causes everybody around you to freak out as well. And the last thing that we want is our clients being freaked out.

We don't want anybody looking at our team going, my gosh, these people are just stressed out, right? First off, there's no reason. There's nothing going on that we can't fix. There's nothing going on that we can't take care of.

So it's just a really good reminder for the team of how to, you know, how to respond culturally at this big event. Especially for the folks that don't come and do these events that often, right? Just be chill.

If something goes wrong, walk through the process. How do I solve this stinking thing as fast as possible, right? So when we got into our Monday staff meeting, we always have a, here's all the positives and here's the negative things that we need to fix, type of a discussion.

And there was a lot of positives that came out of discussing, man, it just was so chill. It was so good. Yeah, we had some things that went wrong, but nobody knew about it. We just solved things and we moved on.

You know, no stress. Nobody was freaking out. And that is exactly what we want. That's what we love. That becomes, that in itself becomes a case study for our team to look at how we impact other people.

You know, if we were freaking out, who, who's watching it? Who's seeing it? So it's a powerful opportunity for you to have those types of cultural discussions, those cultural, you know, feedback.

And it doesn't even have to be, hey, you got all stressed out. It can just be a general discussion. Maybe you've experienced something in the past, maybe you've experienced some team dynamics that aren't what you want in your culture.

Then get into a situation like that, a discussion like that, and give that kind of feedback. Hey guys, if something goes wrong and it freaks you out, here's how to handle it.

Hey guys, if you get afraid because you know something's not going the way you think it should, here's what you can do.

Hey guys, don't forget, you could go speak to this leader over here.

Hey guys, whatever it is, give that kind of feedback into what you want in your culture and to what you want in your team dynamics.

The more you do this, the healthier your culture will be. The healthier the work environment. If you don't want stress and you wouldn't like it around you, guess what?

There's a really good chance a lot of your team members don't either. If you've got champions on your team, I'll promise you, champions don't want people freaking out. They don't want to be around people freaking out.

They don't understand why people freak out. You know, they're like, it's just a, it's just a problem. Just solve a problem, gain some perspective and do something about it. So it is powerful for you if you will spend time leading healthy conversations like that.

Hey guys, here's how we handle things. Here's what we do in these situations. Now, what about the person who does struggle with the fear of feedback?

Something that you're going to need to do is you're gonna need to tackle some of those emotional aspects of the feedback, right? The you, you're gonna need to address the fear of receiving feedback or giving feedback. Because if it's, you know, a team member, it could be both ways.

Not only could they be afraid of receiving feedback, but they sure as heck could be afraid of giving it. So what do you do for me?

I'm always gonna start like, you know, like I shared earlier on, Hey, what are you afraid of? What are you concerned with? What's the thing that you're struggling with?

I'll ask it in multiple different ways. 'cause some people, you know, you hide these out there. If I said, what are you afraid of? You're gonna say nothing. I'm not afraid of anything.

Okay, well, what concerns you? Well, what concerns me is this, this, and this. Okay? So it's just, I gotta change the word, right? I gotta change it.

I gotta say the thing that that lands best. So what I will do is I'll start off on the, the front side with some of that quality perspective, gaining whatcha are afraid of.

What are you concerned with? What are struggling with? And find out what they are dealing with emotionally so I can help them to overcome. A good leader will spend time helping a team member overcome the emotional aspects of the fear of feedback.

Hey, here's what I want you to hear in the feedback. Here's what I want to talk through. Here's what I want you to, you know, and sometimes what I'll do is I'll ask, what did you hear me say?

That's a big, big powerful piece right there too, because sometimes they will hear something you didn't say and you won't find out about it for months, and then it comes back and you're like, what the heck that is?

So not what I said, oh yeah, yeah, that's what you said. No, that's not what I said. Well, you said this. Yeah, but that's not what that means. So sometimes you gotta make sure that the communication, while the communication may even be clear on your end, it may not have been received with clarity.

So discover what they're experiencing, discover what they heard, what did you hear me say? And then make sure that you're setting them up for success. The more you do this, the more you do this, the more your team will be able to operate in a healthy cultural way.

The more you do this with every team member, or your leaders are doing this with each team member, the more that the team can give quality feedback as well. So it's amazing because then it becomes something that's not just a critique.

It's not just somebody sounding like they're, you know, criticizing the daylights out of everybody. And again, we hit the other things on the front side, the victim mentality, all that kind of stuff. You gotta work through those things.

But the more you do this, the more you're gonna discover that even team members will mimic it. If you have led by example, they will mimic it with other team members as well. They will find that they can trust each other, that they can be vulnerable with each other, right?

Obviously, it's your job to watch over that and make sure you don't have somebody's being a controlling jerk. But when you do this, what it looks like in a healthy organization, when you've got this quality feedback loop, if you will, going on, then you're gonna see some crazy positive outcomes.

You're gonna start to see communication just become so much stronger. This is where we start talking about high levels of quality communication.

Because as people can not be victims and not be fearful and give good input and you know, other people are not controlling and being abusive with that feedback, then we start to see our communication double, triple, quadruple.

We start to see our productivity increase. It is amazing with my team. I just love how, how powerful this is within my own team of watching how much our team gets done. I mean, it's just incredible.

And at the basis of all of this is high levels of quality communication, but also trust, vulnerability, accountability, those pieces allow it to be super positive. And what happens when it's not a positive? What happens when it's a negative?

People are able to handle it well. People are able to deal with it well, because the communication is so good. You don't receive from somebody that they're just trying to, you know, be a jerk to you.

Instead, you understand that people have your back, they have your best interest at heart. So what's the big deal that's needed for all of this? Consistency, consistency, clarity.

A big piece that I've been talking about but haven't verbalized it is empathy. Put yourself in the shoes of the other person as you're giving them feedback, right?

If you can be consistent with your feedback, if you can have amazing clarity with your feedback, and if you can empathize, then you'll be blown away at the feedback delivery and you'll be blown away at how well this starts to operate throughout your whole team, your whole culture.

So there's some great episodes I wanna point you to check out any of these past episodes for more quality feedback:

Episode 349, How Leaders Can Get Quality, Productive Feedback. It's a great episode. It's all about how leaders can get good feedback that they need to grow. So this is coming, you know, from the team members, but both personally and professionally.

You can grow yourself as a leader. There's a six step process to help you handle feedback, conversations like a true leader. I'm telling you, it will help you get your team communicating in a positive way. Episode 349, go check that out.

Also, Episode 346, How to Get More out of Your Team. This is an episode where we dive into team productivity.

We, we tackled common issues like communication, motivation, accountability, and shared actionable strategies to keep your team thriving.

So tune in and level up your leadership game. Folks, those are a couple of powerful episodes that are gonna be so complimentary to this one. So remember that mastering the art of feedback is not something you're gonna do overnight. This is a journey.

This is not just a destination, this is a journey, right? It's about building bridges. It's not about building barriers, it's about fostering an environment where everybody feels valued, where they all feel, you know, heard, I'm not talking about that.

You have to go around and make everybody feel just, you know, seeing kumbaya and make sure everybody's self-esteem is okay. That is not what I'm talking about.

What we're talking about is getting people in a place where they feel valued, they feel heard, and they're motivated to grow, not stay where they are.

So as leaders, it's our role to initiate, nurture this feedback loop that is so, so powerful for your culture, so powerful for your organization. So make it an integral part of your organizational culture.

So while this whole conversation may be difficult for you, I know there's plenty of leaders out there going, oh, for the love, oh, do I have to do this?

Yes, I highly suggested embrace the feedback loop with with an open mind, right? With an open heart. Make sure that you're, you're understanding that these are going to be challenges, but these are transformative challenges.

These are gonna change some opportunities inside of your culture. This is gonna change. Team growth, individual growth, team dynamics, team development. It's gonna be powerful.

So while this is difficult, I want you to lead with courage. I want you to keep making a difference inside of your culture, right? Don't just push this aside and think, I can't do it.

You can. You absolutely can. Well, folks, that's all the time that we have for today. We hope that you have enjoyed this episode. We hope this has helped you immensely.

As always, take this information, change your leadership, change your business, change your life, and join us on the next episode.