Are you Circling Back in your feedback Conversations?

In this situation, Brene Brown is talking about Circling Back after she was offered feedback.  My observation is that many people being offered feedback are reluctant to circle back.  If they have felt uncomfortable receiving the feedback, they often want to escape, and will say anything to rush though a hard conversation so it can be over, almost a ‘get me out of here’ response!  Given that, it is important that the person offering the feedback circle backs, especially if they are a leader who has offered feedback to someone they lead.

What does Circling Back involve?

If you are going to the effort of providing useful feedback, it makes sense to get the most value from it. Circling back on feedback conversations involves re-visiting it and keeping the conversation going.  It gives the person offering the feedback the opportunity to:

• Care & Support: Check in on the other person and show you care; answer any questions they have.
  

• Learn & Grow: Explore what you can both learn from the feedback conversation and the implementation (or not) of the feedback.
  

• Celebrate & Plan for the Future:  A chance to acknowledge & value growth, progress, skill development and apply a continuous improvement approach to next steps.
  

How can I Circle Back in my Feedback Conversations?

The Feedback Fitness Framework actively encourages you to Circle Back.  In fact, the Cool Down phase is all about Circling Back 😊

You can use the Cool Down conversation Circle Back.  The Cool Down is made up of 3 different steps. It is simple to use, and super easy to remember:

Cool Down Conversation

Circle back:

• One Minute after the feedback conversation.

• One Day after the feedback conversation.

• One Week after the feedback conversation.

Questions to ask yourself as a Leader:

1. How can you set up a system to ensure you are ‘circling back’ after you offer feedback to those in your team?
   
   

2. Are you asking to ‘circle back’ when you are offered feedback?
   
   

3. Have you created a team culture where ‘Circling Back’ is normal, expected and encouraged?