I always ask for feedback, even early in any kind of activity or project, to the point that more than one person told me "You are already asking for feedback, but we've just begun!".
I do this because –with my past as a project manager- I know that any kind of project suffers from a general lack of timely feedback loops.
The earliest and more frequent, the better: people are in general wary of both giving and receiving feedback, so you have to be the first one starting the process.
Due to this general lack of feedback loops, people don't know what "good feedback" sounds like, so you have to set good examples – and yours are on point, as usual.
It's been hard for me to start this practice of asking for feedback also because I'm a natural born introvert, but so far the rewards have been on the positive side: very often I discovered strengths that I didn't know I had (e.g. clients telling me that they appreciated my timely communication style, which I always took for granted) or I have been able to manage expectations and avoiding to take it too personally (e.g. when someone tells me that what I didn't wasn't exactly what they expected).
I think that as consultants we should make peace with the fact that a client who is always 100% satisfied with what you do is probably a client that you are not challenging enough.
Facilitating and asking for feedback from big groups has been a great gym for me, the wider the audience the more likely someone will give you a less than positive feedback, and you have to learn to live with that.
I like your response on the platform vendor offering consulting services.
Your first couple of points are spot on, and something that I have definitely experienced in my career having dealt with multiple tech platforms.
One additional point you might want to highlight:
Product company consultants come with a (more or less) strong knowledge of their product, but don't have the expertise nor the experience to contextualize that knowledge within a complex system integration environment.
They might understand the workings of a single organ but have no clue how it interacts with the rest of the body.
I wouldn’t want a doctor with such a narrow understanding to have anything to do with my care!
I always ask for feedback, even early in any kind of activity or project, to the point that more than one person told me "You are already asking for feedback, but we've just begun!".
I do this because –with my past as a project manager- I know that any kind of project suffers from a general lack of timely feedback loops.
The earliest and more frequent, the better: people are in general wary of both giving and receiving feedback, so you have to be the first one starting the process.
Due to this general lack of feedback loops, people don't know what "good feedback" sounds like, so you have to set good examples – and yours are on point, as usual.
It's been hard for me to start this practice of asking for feedback also because I'm a natural born introvert, but so far the rewards have been on the positive side: very often I discovered strengths that I didn't know I had (e.g. clients telling me that they appreciated my timely communication style, which I always took for granted) or I have been able to manage expectations and avoiding to take it too personally (e.g. when someone tells me that what I didn't wasn't exactly what they expected).
I think that as consultants we should make peace with the fact that a client who is always 100% satisfied with what you do is probably a client that you are not challenging enough.
Facilitating and asking for feedback from big groups has been a great gym for me, the wider the audience the more likely someone will give you a less than positive feedback, and you have to learn to live with that.
Hi David, I really appreciate you sharing your personal experiences here. It definitely isn't always easy to do.
THere's an interesting point that maybe clients shouldn't be 100% happy. Similar to how you shouldn't be achieving 100% of your goals.
As usual, so much value in your newsletter!
I like your response on the platform vendor offering consulting services.
Your first couple of points are spot on, and something that I have definitely experienced in my career having dealt with multiple tech platforms.
One additional point you might want to highlight:
Product company consultants come with a (more or less) strong knowledge of their product, but don't have the expertise nor the experience to contextualize that knowledge within a complex system integration environment.
They might understand the workings of a single organ but have no clue how it interacts with the rest of the body.
I wouldn’t want a doctor with such a narrow understanding to have anything to do with my care!
Thanks TMC,
That's actually a really useful point. I might incorporate that in future. I like that.