Gauge Your Feedback to Understand How it's Landing for Others

We want to help you create a culture of great feedback. In order to do that, we think you need to give feedback, get feedback, encourage feedback and gauge your feedback.

Feedback: Get it. Give it. Gauge it. Encourage it.

Get it

You have to work hard to get candid feedback from the people you work with, especially if you’re the boss. Hearing no criticism from your team doesn’t mean there isn’t any - it just means they’re not sharing it. Start with a simple question, such as “Can you give me some advice?” and then shut up and listen with the intent to understand.

Give it

Give feedback that shows you Care Personally and are willing to Challenge Directly. Try our HIP approach to giving Radically Candid feedback.

Gauge it

Radical Candor is not measured at your mouth; it’s measured at the listener’s ear. Gauging how your feedback is landing will enable you to know how other people are experiencing your feedback and will help you move toward being more Radically Candid.

Encourage it

Feedback becomes an integral part of your company culture when you encourage it among all team members. Help everyone learn to give each other in person, impromptu praise and criticism so that your organization can improve itself quickly and your team can be even more engaged than they already are.

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Training and workshops are important, but we’ve found that their impact tends to be ephemeral. The absolute best training day sees the students run out of the room, eager to change behavior and implement new ideas with haste.

Maybe a week later, though, the enthusiasm wanes and your students are back to old habits. It’s a disappointing cycle and sometimes can make even the best training sessions feel like a waste of time and money.

Similarly, when you go to your semi-annual cleaning at the dentist, you walk out of the building feeling like the Pearl Drops lady. Included with your cleaning is a finger-wag from the hygienist about your need to brush and floss more often - because that’s where the real impact comes from. The cleaning matters, but it can’t hold up on its own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF3A3u2hYL4&feature=youtu.be&t=20s

So how can you make sure that a culture of feedback persists in your company, after you introduce the concepts of Radical Candor? Gauge your feedback regularly.

Why Gauge Your Feedback?

1. Get the superpower to know what others think - Of course you want to know what others think about your feedback. You know that Radical Candor is measured at the listener’s ear and not at your mouth, so you need the listener’s perspective. Asking them to gauge your feedback will show you whether you’ve been Radically Candid - or not - in the last week.
2. Knowing is half the battle - GI Joe said “Knowing is half the battle.” If you ask people to gauge your feedback each week, it will help you remember to give impromptu praise and criticism. Plus, just knowing how people rate your feedback will help you naturally improve.

https://youtu.be/tCRCX2pItAg

1. Small investment, big rewards - It takes less than a minute for you to ask people to gauge your feedback, and even less time for them to do it. And when they do gauge your feedback, you’ll both notice a big improvement in your working relationship.
2. Get tips and advice - When you learn how your feedback is perceived, you’ll know what you need to improve and can check out specific tips for moving towards Radical Candor.

You can learn how people feel about your feedback by printing out the Radical Candor framework and asking them to mark their ratings.