Dr. Mark Mugiish
Surgeon
Taylor Logan
Senior Manager at The Public Theater
Andy Wallace
Music Producer & Engineer
Ed Shaw
Lifeguard
Gordon D’Arcy
Former Irish Rugby Player
Natalie Abrahami
Theater Director
Robert Hall
Former US Army Infrantryman & Sniper
Andy Kistler
Former Head of the Swiss National Show Jumping Team
Furio Benussi
Professional Sailor
Rangga Riantiarno
Actor, Director & Writer
Bruce Chapman
Managing Director at The Providore
John Jeniec
Firefighter
Paul Warner
Film & Theater Director
Neil Mullarkey
Performer, Author & Communication Coach
Charlie Walker-Wise
Director & Actor
Mark Portlock
Live Music Tour Manager
James Robinson
Artistic Director of the Opera Theater of Saint Louis
Jessica Gethin
Conductor of the Adelaide Orchestra
Ted Brandsen
Artistic Director at the Dutch National Ballet
Hector Solis
Restaurant Owner & Chef
Chris Hampson
Artistic Director at the Scottish Ballet
James Berckemeyer
Restaurant Owner & Chef
Patsy Rodenburg
Voice Coach, Author & Theater Director
Jason Cornish
Air Traffic Controller
Rebekah Hall
Orthopedic Surgery PA
Ryan Patrick McLaughlin
Theater Producer
Alex Partridge
Former British Rower & Olympian
Alex is an Olympic Silver and Gold medalist. A mental wellbeing and financial wellness aficionado, he is passionate about bringing health, strength and happiness to all through best practices and purpose focused technology.
Sort the timing
Feedback is the only way to improve in rowing. You come off the water and analyze immediately. This feedback loop—three times a day—ensures you constantly do what is needed. If you leave [it] until later, you may forget or dwell on it and get stressed. In turn, this leads to a tension state that you haven’t put to bed in the last session. Immediate feedback… helps remove the risk.
The challenge in the corporate world is that feedback is left so late, and it’s so big by the time you sit for a feedback session. You end up in this cycle of underperforming because of anxiety or lack of clarity and direction.
Get the environment right
As an athlete, you are being tested all the time, desperately competing against but also encouraging your fellow teammates. You’re only as fast as the slowest person in the boat, so you want the slowest person to be the best they possibly can. Shared goals and shared purpose is critical to relationships within a group that has this dichotomy of relationship dynamic. So, you have to constantly reiterate the goals and base feedback on the theme/ context [which is to go fast]- this makes the feedback simple and relevant.
Help the leader understand the person
Sport really is simple; rowing is simple, but human factors always get in the way. Feedback has to be really constructive, and, from the outset, coaches need to try to eliminate the emotion and create culture where feedback is not seen as something personal.
In my field, a good coach stays beside you every single session- they also pat you on the back if you did a good job. If you have done a bad job they will try to understand why and often look you in the eye and ask you to rest, recover and come back. That’s’ an innate skill. In the corporate world, the greatest leaders I have met in the corporate world had a crazy schedule but would always make time. Sometimes people just forget people are people.
Alex Partridge
Former British Rower & Olympian
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Morgan Pearse
Opera Singer
Dr. Mugiishi is president and CEO of the Hawaii Medical Service Association and a surgeon by training. He also spent 20 years as a high school basketball coach, winning seven state championships.
Feedback is critical to anyone’s development. You don’t really change or adapt in the way you respond to things without receiving feedback. We are social beings who rely on the signals we get from others to shape our behavior.
It’s very easy when things aren’t going well to provide feedback. You must have the discipline to also acknowledge small successes, because that’s what creates behavior change.
When I was a surgeon in the operating room, immediate feedback was critical. It’s not good enough at the end of the procedure just to say, “the surgery was successful, the patient lived, congratulations everybody.” You need to give feedback along the way about the most precise, detailed things that impact the outcome, such as: “I don’t like the way you put the needle on the needle driver,” or, “that was perfect the way you handed that to me.” Specific feedback impacts behavior.
I think the most important condition for someone to take feedback well is trust. If there isn’t trust, it [doesn’t matter what] else you do. So, you need to spend a lot of time building relationships.
It shows there’s trust in a relationship when people take what you say and believe it’s in their best interest and/or in the best interest of the enterprise, common good, or common goal you’re all striving to achieve.
The more pressing the situation, the calmer you must be in the way you give feedback. I think it’s really important that you don’t give feedback in a way that causes the other person to struggle or panic in the moment.
There’s a very distinct difference in settings where the roles are clearly delineated, like an operating room, and those where roles are not, like an executive suite or a basketball court. I think the way you communicate feedback in those cases is totally different when roles aren’t as defined. Feedback that addresses substantive behaviors, as opposed to only the results of a task, helps to build and define roles.
Dr. Mark Mugiishi
Surgeon
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Taylor has a passion for the Arts and bringing communities together. Upon graduating in 2015, she worked for American Ballet Theatre, which ultimately led her to The Public Theater where she has advanced through various development-focused roles.
Immediate feedback, in my early career, was very helpful to me. As I continued to grow, feedback became about challenging me to think differently, ‘Have you thought about this? Have you looked at it this way? Have you taken this angle?’ This is something I’ve taken forward.
[During] discussions, I love playing devil’s advocate to delve into a lot of situations, even if I agree with the decision that’s being made. I do this because we need to make sure that we’re also thinking about things from others’ perspectives – ‘What are we not thinking about or discussing that might impact our decision?’
One of the challenges I come across regularly is dealing with a new person coming into the workspace – understanding how they’re giving feedback and molding it to the way that I know I’m going to be able to act on it best. Also managing feedback from multiple people on one specific thing, especially in the times of remote working when we’re not altogether.
In terms of giving feedback, I learn from the way that people have managed me in the past. Being hands-on constantly with them and saying, ‘I noticed this thing’ or ‘I noticed you’re about to do it this way’. So, really trying to guide them in the first steps, so by the fifth step, their work is up to standard.
The ability to be cordial and have a friendly conversation, even being lighthearted, is helpful in giving feedback. In some senses, it may be the nature of working in the Arts.
Getting the environment right is key. You don’t want that person being distracted by a person walking by but really being able to focus in the moment on what you’re talking about. The person receiving feedback also needs to learn not to take it personally, because you know, if you take it personally, you’re going to shut down immediately and then what we hear is not always what the person is saying.
Taylor Logan
Senior Manager at The Public Theater
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Neil founded the world-famous improvisation group “The Comedy Store Players” with Mike Myers, as well as appearing in a couple of Austin Powers movies. He has worked with the most talented names in comedy, film and television. Since 1999, he has been bringing theatre skills, in particular improvisation, into the world of business to enhance communication, creativity and leadership skills, with clients across the world. He shares his techniques in his book, ‘Seven Steps to Improve Your People Skills.’
Neil is a passionate believer in the power of feedback. And it’s played a big part in shaping his own career.
Feedback is so important for development. It should be happening all the time. Frankly, 6 month or 1-year appraisals are absurd! For me personally, I like feedback. It gives me something to work with, as a performer and as a writer. Most of my feedback has been given by directors or editors, but as a comic, there really is no better feedback than laughter.
He is a less of fan of the word itself.
Someone saying, ‘Can I give you some feedback?’ is like saying, ‘Let me tell you where you went wrong.’ It sounds like criticism. Ironically, feedback is the same word used when your microphone gets too close to the speaker… when things have gone wrong. Maybe we need to change the word?
Neil has spent a long time figuring out how to give feedback that lands in the right way. He’s learned the importance of assessing the person, the context and the moment when deciding on how to deliver it.
People take feedback differently – some get it straight away – others feel like it’s an attack on them. That’s why you must consider the person and context. You also can’t give feedback in a workshop in the same way as you can in a 1:1. People want candor in a 1:1 and so I give that. They don’t always know how to enact it. When directing a show, you do sometimes need to be a bit brutal, but remind them that’s it’s for the good of the show.
One thing I’m aware of is feedback I’m giving (or others perceive) subconsciously. I’ve had people look at me and say ‘Ah, you didn’t like it, did you?’ - all because of my facial expression. I consciously try to look positive!
My key takeaways are not be afraid to challenge but keep a keen eye on how others react. Let the feedback be two-way as we find new ways to interact.
Neil Mullarkey
Performer, Author & Communication Coach
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Chris has risen through the ranks to become one of the leading figures in dance in the UK and internationally. He is a graduate of the Royal Ballet School and danced professionally with English National Ballet until 1999 when he became a full-time choreographer. Chris joined Scottish Ballet as Artistic Director in 2012.
When I had a stage career, I noticed that I often gained more insight from people with different backgrounds and cultures to me because I found I was listening more. There were big differences between Eastern Europe, Western Europe and the US. I can also see it in my own dancers. I can identify the people who have built up the tools to deal with this variety of feedback.
Honesty and trust are crucial in this industry. Dancers work very closely with all members of the team – there is a real artistic bond there. I approach the most difficult feedback scenarios with absolute honesty. I remember one situation I had to address which had provoked real anger in me and a defensiveness in the person involved. When we sat down to talk it through, I started by revealing that I wasn’t very good at being able to deal with situations when I was angry. She felt very vulnerable. But then she also saw that I was feeling quite vulnerable. There was a bit of equity in the conversations from then on.
Dancers crave feedback after a performance – but who wants to hear any negative feedback when you have adrenaline pumping around your body? You need to be in the right headspace for this kind of feedback, so it needs to be delivered at the right time.
There is a perception in my industry that dancers have very little control over their careers – but they have a great deal of control if they chose to access it. I often spend time with dancers to uncover their ambitions and what they want to achieve, and I listen. If I can then frame feedback in a way that really resonates to their ambitions – this is more impactful and helpful in the long run and puts them in control of their own feedback – allowing the space for them to be creative and improvise with it.
For this to be truly effective, dancers need to have an ability to be present, to have a stark acceptance of reality and an ability to communicate their values, who they are and what they want to achieve. There then needs to be resilience and a willingness to listen to all feedback, with the ability to reflect and not react.
Chris Hampson
Artistic Director at the Scottish Ballet
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Robert served as an Infantryman and Sniper in the US Army for four years. He is now a management consultant specializing in executive compensation.
When I joined the army, I had 15 weeks of basic infantry training. It was a great learning experience for me as I learned new skills and improved my performance based on the consistent feedback given by the drill sergeants who were well-experienced enlisted soldiers.
Taking this experience with me, I then moved to 10th Mountain, 2nd BCT, which is a rapid deployment unit in the military. Here, we had sergeants with an experience of combat in Iraq who coached and developed us practically on all the processes, such as shooting and infantry tactics. The consistent and immediate feedback from them helped me a lot to become efficient and work effectively in teams – which then led me to sniper school. However, there were a few ambiguities around the feedback which officers gave related to deployment. We could not relate as we were not yet in the field, but eventually understood the importance once I got deployed.
These experiences shaped a person like me who was still young but understood the importance of developing others. I learned to give immediate feedback to the new entrants and other juniors whenever we went for our field exercises, shooting, raids, or sniper missions. I believed in sharing my scenarios for them to learn and grow. So, it is a continuous loop of sharing knowledge with juniors. We share what we have learned during wars and how we handle the tough situations. It is really important because it could save someone’s life.
How someone reacts to feedback depends on the individual mindset. Some individuals who had internal drive were open to feedback which others gave, but there were a few of them who didn’t and eventually were let go from the army.
One can see an effective feedback mechanism in the army because of the team spirit and passion everyone has towards one mission that they need to accomplish. The pressure and responsibility along with the feedback given to us made us high-performing individuals who saved lives.
Robert Hall
Former US Army Infantryman & Sniper
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Charlie trained as an actor at RADA in London and worked in the West End, regional theatre, film and television while simultaneously cultivating a career as a trainer and facilitator. He is now a director, acting teacher and facilitator and Client Services Director at RADA Business where he helps individuals, teams and organizations make powerful shifts in performance.
The giving of feedback in drama training is tough. Many people assume that the process of acting is about ‘putting on’ a character, a costume, a voice. But it starts with ‘taking off’ and undoing your own habits. There is a process of undoing of emotional experience, of life experience and asking you to look into yourself to find elements of characters that you might have to play.
I think, in a theatrical context, the leader is essentially the Director. But there’s not really one way to direct. I suspect for leaders of organizations it’s the same. It draws so much on you as an individual, what you value, how you can articulate that to a group of people and then bring them on the journey with you.
From an artistic perspective, when I’m directing actors, the most important thing for me is the actors feel free to play, discover, take risk. What freedom doesn’t mean is that there are no parameters. Freedom for me means very clear boundaries, so that people can operate within that. Structure is fundamental to the ability for people to be effective. The risk inherent in that is that you stifle people, because it is too much of a held environment. Artistic people, in particular, need to express themselves, so you have to be able to leave that latitude for them to say, ‘I disagree, that isn’t how I wanted to express myself’.
One of the very quick discoveries I made when I first started directing is that that you need to be incredibly resourceful in your use of language, because people speak very different languages. How you give feedback to one person is completely different from how you need to give feedback to the other person in the same scene. I remember, I was completely lost with an actor one time. I had no idea how to get from her what I wanted and sometimes she could get it, but it never stuck and then I said to her, ‘this line is feather and this line is stone’. That spoke to her, she dealt in texture and feeling and temperature – that was her way in.
Charlie Walker-Wise
Director & Actor
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James is a chef and the owner of “Cosme Restaurante”, one of the best restaurants in Peru.
I have worked in this industry since I was very young. I started as an intern in one of the top restaurants in Lima with the famous chef, Gaston Acurio. I then worked around the world in Michelin-starred restaurants, such as Arzak and El Celler de Can Roca, before opening Cosme in Lima.
Stress is part of the work at a restaurant, you have to deal with it and learn on the go — receiving instructions and feedback with a high sense of urgency.
To become an excellent restaurant, you have to take care of every detail, every day. I think a key success factor is to have a leader taking care of everything. During the busy hours of the restaurant, you have to be on top of everyone and you don’t have time to think about what you are going to say or how, you just give directions “loud and clear”, and employees know that is the dynamic. When the calm returns, we sit down and talk about what happened.
In this work, you are going to make mistakes for sure – that is not the problem, but to lie or be dishonest is. The concepts I teach my employees are values, such as honesty and punctuality. They know I can forgive anything, except when someone does not tell the truth, the rest is easy to teach, and they learn it mostly on the go.
There is nothing wrong with the way we give feedback in the moment, as long as you don’t humiliate anyone. The same respect you demand from clients and people, in general, is what you have to give to your employees — even when you speak energetically to them because they did something wrong and you are in a hurry to solve it.
I have a family relationship with my employees, they know I am very open and a good listener, and they are confident that I will be there for them to defend them when a client becomes inappropriate.
James Berckemeyer
Restaurant Owner & Chef
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Paul is a New York based, award-winning film and theater director whose work spans film, theatre and opera.
From the beginning, I have always been seeped in feedback. I went to Exeter, which is where the Harkness table was developed so you are sitting around in a collaborative environment and feedback is the norm. At the American Film Institute, where you screen your projects every weekend as a Director, you sit in front of the room, and everybody gives feedback and you listen. You don’t talk, you listen, and then you fix it.
[When giving feedback] I adjust my approach based on each person’s psychology. If I sense someone is fragile, I may hold back and be careful about when I give the feedback. If it’s someone I’ve worked with for a long time, I may be more blunt. There are some people who want the brutal feedback.
I always start with the positive, what’s working. I don’t refer to it as negative or not working, I refer to it as ‘Why don’t we try this idea?’ If you bring negative energy into your work, you are not going to inspire the creative team on a film set or theater rehearsal. I would think this to be true of any business.
You need to withhold the desire to attack. As a director, you are on the hot seat all day. [I] had to learn not to respond instantly. Let the anger subside. Watch very closely, read the room, understand the emotional state of people non-verbally. Make sure there is time each day for personal reflection before going into battle.
When do I give feedback? Certainly not at the end of the day when people can be tired or distracted. I wait until I can detect that the person is not overwhelmed. Better listening goes on in the rehearsal when the pressure is off, as opposed to on the set.
The whole business of films and theater is mixing and making the potion through collaboration. You have production meetings or rehearsals before the shoot and everybody’s in the room, which helps the team hear all points of view. What I do is ask questions, so that they are talking and vocalizing and not keeping it in.
Paul Warner
Film & Theater Director
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Before entering the sports world, Andy began his management career in business working with German and Swiss hygiene and paper companies, before ending his 13-year term at Kimberly Clark in 2012. Since then, he has paved an entrepreneurial career serving as President, Partner and Board Member for various organizations across multiple industries.
If Andy could have his life over, he would enter sport earlier and then go into business. He believes it would have revolutionized his approach to giving feedback.
I would have been far more immediate with feedback and address things in the moment, not worry about the traditional 4 times a year feedback reviews.
Andy came to the Swiss team from the outside, so his priority when officially joining was to build trust with the whole team.
I knew the team but had always been there as a father of riding daughters and an organizer, not in the Swiss setup. The team knew me, they respected me – but I needed to prove why I should be there. It was most important for me to build trust – you cannot just ask for it, you always need to deliver. Then the team could feel that I was as ambitious as they were and wanted to help them to succeed – and could do this by bringing together the optimal leadership and conditions for development.
I brought in so much regularity that it became normal to receive feedback and therefore, the team knew that it was not personal. Open communication is key.
In sport, timing is everything especially when it comes to giving effective feedback.
It was important to recognize success immediately and ensure the conditions were right for feedback. You don’t want to talk for a long time – in sportspeople’s lives they have just one minute to determine whether they are successful or not. It is important that the feedback always helps – during an event is not the moment to give feedback on principles, you should only give feedback that brings out the best possible from this person in this moment.
When the team was not successful, I always took ownership. My motto is ‘always improve, always be better’ – the crucial aspects for success are vision, target-setting, working with the best possible partners and always wanting to win – and when it comes to feedback and performance management, simplicity is key.
Andy Kistler
Former Head of the Swiss National Show Jumping Team
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Mark is a live music tour manager. For over 30 years, he has worked on large-scale music production events.
There isn’t a formal process for feedback in my industry – I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I’ve been given specific feedback. Instead, it’s a very indirect, organic development process; you work with a team of people for 6-8 weeks and then move onto the next crew. The ‘feedback’ in this process includes learning by your mistakes and observing others. [As I developed] through my career, I knew whether I was doing well based on being recommended for the next job.
Through this organic development process, you slowly develop your technical and behavioral/social skills. Behavioral and social skills are key to this industry: no matter how good you are technically and no matter what your CV contains, you must fit into the social ecosystem to succeed. You need to understand people at a personal level, to build trust; and then the pressure of the job lessens.
Nowadays, I believe in giving feedback to my crew members at the right moment – it’s very dependent on the situation and the person as to when and how you do this. For positive feedback, sometimes a pat on the back during a high-pressure show is all that is needed to let them know all is going well. If things aren’t going as well, it might not be best to stand over someone’s shoulder in a tense environment – you need to give people the space to work things out on their own.
There is very little top-down management in my industry. It’s much more that ‘the show must go on at all costs’ – and every crew member motors on to make this happen. This driven culture is vital to our success. Sometimes, people put their personal lives on hold to do the job well. So, when things go wrong, it’s usually because something personal is affecting their mindset. I try to find out informally (via close crew members) what’s troubling them and then I can offer support. My own experience helps me to understand them and put myself in their shoes.
Mark Portlock
Live Music Tour Manager
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Patsy is the Head of Voice at Guildhall School in London, the Director of Voice at Michael Howard Studios in New York City and has also worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre. She has worked regularly with the world’s best-known actors including: Judi Dench, Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Orlando Bloom and Hugh Jackman. Patsy is also a best-selling author.
I’ve worked with some of the greatest people on the planet. If I’m giving you a note and you’re going on stage in two hours’ time, I have to find the source of what is going wrong. I’m not an academic; I am a practitioner. I usually say “try these” when providing feedback.
An actor would be very upset if I didn’t give them notes. The good ones want to hear the good and the bad because they want to grow. I will only give a note if I can suggest a way to change it. Generally, people cannot take more than three notes at the same time.
When you give a note, it makes an impact. You are telling someone something they have to digest. You have to say the good things before the negative.
If giving feedback can be done well, it is stunningly effective. If not, it’s quite dangerous.
It has to be, not precisely in the moment, but very close to the event. Otherwise, it’s not a clean interaction.
You must demonstrate a tremendous level of decency and respect for the person. In a way, you have to understand the person. No one minds the truth if it’s done in a human way.
I am not a rigid person, but I know what works and does not work. The notes that are remembered are the most important ones.
Every person has a presence. You have to recognize each other’s space and make good eye contact when giving feedback. There’s got to be a humanity. A balance in the relationship in that moment. The human voice is a free voice. If it’s not free, it accurately reflects what you are thinking or feeling.
Patsy Rodenburg OBE
Voice Coach, Author & Theater Director
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Andy is an American music engineer, mixer and producer with a long and successful track record. He has received eight Grammy Award nominations and in 1999, he was awarded a Grammy Award for his work on Sheryl Crow’s album The Globe Sessions. His extensive discography includes work with Aerosmith and Run DMC, Nirvana, The Cult, Blink-182, Jeff Buckley, Phish, Coldplay and Foo Fighters.
Music has been my passion since childhood – it has shaped me as a person. Early memories of effective feedback come from my grade school days where I was learning piano. My instructor was very encouraging and gave me so many great inputs that developed my skills.
In working with musicians, there is no structured way of giving 'feedback'. It has always been an organic way of learning and developing with others. You learn through observing and interacting with musicians, producers and other artists in my field.
That’s how my learning journey over the years has been – be it playing in a band during the initial days, doing an album for an independent label in 1969 or producing independently. When it came to developing the techniques required, I relied on my problem-solving skills.
This also helped me to work well with other musicians because I tried to understand the issues they are facing and resolve them in the best and most practical way possible.
A big part of [the reputation I have built over time] is truly listening to the artist and being open to experimentation. For example: new ideas are often brought by the bands or they describe how they want the sound to be. So, 'feedback' in my work is understanding what the artists want and working with them to bring it to fruition. A key aspect is about getting to know the artists even before the recording begins – like having pre-production rehearsals to understand their interests and style of working. We work collaboratively, giving suggestions and working on technicalities. If there is a conflict, then it could be a one-on-one dialogue with one of the band members or sitting with the entire group and resolving it together. It is about giving and receiving feedback – without fear – in the form of suggestions.
Andy Wallace
Music Producer & Engineer
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Furio is currently the team manager of the Fast and Furio sailing team. Since 2001, his team has won a wealth of world, European and Italian titles, as well as victories in classic regattas such as the Giraglia Rolex Cup.
During my early career, I was like a volcano, and I made a lot of mistakes. The older people wanted to give me feedback, but it was not always easy for me to accept. At first, my reaction was not always perfect in front of the leader. Later on I started to understand what they meant and that’s important - understand what they want to tell you.
After I understood the message, my performance improved. But it wasn’t always easy to understand the message as they may not have said it in the right way. That’s why now I try and explain my ideas, the target, and meet with the guys and understand their ideas.
It is important to give feedback – every maneuver is hard so every mistake can be big. Your life could be in the hands of another guy.
For us, feedback happens during training as during the race you can’t. It is not always best to give in the moment feedback as it is a safety hazard, especially if the maneuver is causing danger, which means we need to stop and maneuver for safety.
While we are training, we take notes and then later explain what was wrong. During training, you can stop the action and give feedback. But during the race we can’t. Once we have the notes, we practice the manoeuvre in a different situation. If one person makes a mistake, the whole team is impacted. We have to be perfect in every sector of the boat.
You need to talk to people separately – you can’t give the feedback in front of others. In a 25-person crew, it can be difficult to manage the mix as everyone has different characters. You need to understand the needs, mindset, direction of all the individuals in the group.
To be a good leader and provide feedback, you need good credibility around the world. It’s important to have the CV so people trust in your idea. This gives you credibility. You can’t be a leader without that CV.
Furio Benussi
Professional Sailor
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James is regarded as one of America’s most inventive and sought-after directors. He has won wide acclaim for productions that range from the standard repertory to world premieres to seldom performed works and he is considered the most widely performed director of opera in North America. He became Artistic Director of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in 2009.
My background was in writing music. I worked with various composers and orchestras, learning the nuts and bolts while also studying theatre and art history. I landed in Santa Fe, at an opera festival, where I got a job as an usher at the Santa Fe Opera. I had very little exposure to opera before then, but I kept asking questions. It was a really supportive environment. They asked me to come back the next year, not as an usher, but rather as a producer. They provided me the opportunity to figure out if that’s what I wanted.
Feedback was very important to James as he was growing is career, but he decided, very early on, to rely on only a handful of people.
The world of the performing arts is different. It’s not as if you get performance reviews. You evaluate your performance based on audience reactions or professional criticism. From my perspective, I learned early on that I would only go to a handful of people I trusted for feedback. A lot of people cast a wide net for feedback, and I have found that this is a destructive thing, ultimately, because you can get confused by so many different perspectives.
When I first started doing this, if I got feedback from a producer or an older peer. Every piece of criticism was like a dart or harpoon. This probably reflects a more youthful experience. I needed to make sure I didn’t personalize this feedback. Some people can’t take any criticism, so they build up an armor of arrogance or they are so devastated every time they get criticism. You need to build up a shield and know how to let certain things in without personalizing it.
He strongly believes that to get the best out of people, you need to make them feel safe and that means finding the right time and place to give feedback.
I like everyone to feel vulnerable so they can contribute to the process and share their perspective. There is no right or wrong way. [You need to convince] people that their opinions matter. [You need to find] the vulnerability where people feel safe to contribute and share a flow of ideas. Choosing the right time and situation to provide feedback is critical. I want to create a collaborative environment, where people can fail and come back, but if people in that room just feel bombarded by feedback or criticism, it can be very harmful to that environment.
James Robinson
Artistic Director of the Opera Theater of Saint Louis
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Jason began his professional career as a School Teacher and Musician before transitioning to an organizational President. He later joined the Federal Aviation Administration to serve in his current role.
A lot of times you’ll run into trainers whose only goal is to clone themselves. Good performance isn’t one size fits all. You need to allow people to specialize in their unique strengths, rather than trying to make them squeeze into a mold. What works for one person may not work the same for another, or in the very least, may not be the method that brings out their full potential. Building a team is a lot like building a room – you can’t just throw all the materials together and call it a room. It comes down to how it was built – every component has a function, and if pieced together mindfully, those components can work and support as a unit, to create a solid foundation.
I learned the importance of giving others the freedom to be their own people firsthand at the beginning of my Traffic Control career. I found myself struggling initially –trying to make sense of who I was and where I was at professionally – but luckily, I had one manager who saw potential and helped me find confidence in what came naturally to me. Knowing I had his support to trust my perceptions and experiences relieved a huge weight from my shoulders, and I was able to relax and remain less reactive under times of stress. I had the space to learn what specifically works for me and identify methods of remaining proactive and consistent in demonstrating the best version of Me.
[As a musician outside of work] I still approach my work in this way, referencing past (seemingly unrelated) experiences. For example, to me, development conversations are a lot like playing jazz. Jazz is all about improvisation – listening to what’s going on around you and knowing when it’s appropriate to jump in. Similarly, an effective discussion requires two people to be attentively listening to and understanding the structure of the conversation. There’s a time and place to interject and there’s usually a good reason for silences/pauses.
Jason Cornish
Air Traffic Controller
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Ed is a lifeguard at Surf Live Saving Australia, an non-profit community with 181,603 members and 315 affiliated Surf Life Saving clubs who perform thousands of rescues, preventative actions and first aid treatments each year.
To provide effective feedback, the conversation should always be about improvement. It’s having a customer focus and helping the community.
People here fail because they don’t do the processes right. It is key to not be judgemental. You need to acknowledge that people make mistakes. It is not helpful if you go with ‘you didn’t do this right’ or make it negative. You have to explain to people the why (what are the consequences) and the how (to do things correctly). Otherwise, they’ll think they’re doing the right thing.
It is important to provide feedback on duty – you’re training the person who’s with you at the same time – especially given the high-risk consequences of the job. You’re trying to make it real for people, so it sticks in their memories. Seeing how things work and bringing your own experiences to bear on that are powerful ways of learning.
Feedback should be provided in a way where you’re trying to help them, but still let them be in control of the situation and manage the patient. It’s not about you taking over. It’s oversight. People need to learn so they can do it [correctly] next time.
Sometimes the kids can get a bit annoyed that you’re providing them feedback because they think they know it all. If you don’t deliver it right, then there’s a risk they won’t show up next time. At the end of the day, you want them to come back – they don’t “need” to be there. You need people to engage, be collaborative and to enjoy what they’re doing.
It helps to understand the person and know how they’ll behave so you articulate it well, so they receive it well. Checking that they understood the feedback is fundamental. Also, it depends if it’s helpful to give that feedback or not. Some people will value it, and some won’t. You need to judge it in the moment.
Ed Shaw
Lifeguard
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Rebekah is an Orthopedic Surgery PA at Northshore University Health System.
As a student, when the teacher gave me feedback, I got a little bit emotional about it. I think it is better to take the emotions out. What is given to you will eventually make you better.
Now I don’t care if you hurt my feelings. I would rather know because, with medicine, there’s this added weight. I’m training to take care of someone’s life, someone’s loved one, so I want to make sure I’m not going to do something incorrectly just because someone’s scared to hurt my feelings.
In surgery, getting immediate feedback is essential. I try to receive it without too much emotion.
I think personal characteristics are required to deliver effective feedback. I think the person does need to be empathetic. Especially if they weren’t directly in the situation that they’re talking about with the feedback. Like one time I was receiving feedback, and my manager wasn’t in the situation [being discussed]. So, I think it took a good amount of empathy from her to be able to step into my shoes, understand how I was feeling.
I think it also takes confidence, just because when I’m trying to give feedback, I’m still so inexperienced in comparison to the people around me. I kind of just think to myself, ‘is this really the right thing to say. I’m not an expert in this field.’
The communication and the whole dance in the operating room is dependent on the surgeon’s personality and whether or not you feel comfortable to ask questions or to make sure that you understand something.
Rebekah Hall
Orthopedic Surgery PA
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Bruce has a true passion for food. He started his career in Australia and worked in some of the best and most acclaimed restaurants and five-star hotels in the country. He is now Managing Director of Luka Holdings, The Better Food Distribution Co, The Wine Distribution Co and co-founder and managing director of The Providore, Singapore’s most prestigious gourmet food brand.
Early on in my career, when I was just starting out and didn’t know much, I was working in the kitchen making salads and cold stuff.
My first executive chef was a Swiss guy. He drove everyone really hard, but he drove some people particularly hard; I think because he identified potential.
There was a lot of yelling and direct feedback. He’d walk up to a salad you made, pick up a piece of lettuce that wasn’t right and wave it in your face. You learned very quickly if you wanted to.
Even to this day, I don’t manage people by making them fear me or making them scared. I try to make them see what we want them to do. If someone has made a mistake, it’s best to spend time with them and fix it together. Even though I’ve progressed, and I have a completely different set of skills now, it’s the same. Let’s learn to do it together as opposed to scolding them with, “why don’t you know the answer”.
I lead by example; I don’t ask anyone to do something I wouldn’t do myself. To me, it’s about consistency and your approach to problem-solving with the team you respect, as compared to pointing out faults all the time.
For some, when they know they’re getting feedback, they come in armed with a defense, they come ready. If the person receiving feedback goes in with an open mind and is willing to listen and grow, I think it’s much more successful. If [they are] defensive, it becomes counter-productive.
I do push really hard with some people, give them feedback a bit more strongly, because I know they can take it and will respond well to it. Especially if I want them to stay and grow in the organisation. But with others they need to be approached in a different way.
Bruce Chapman
Managing Director at The Providore
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Rangga is an actor, director and writer who grew up in the world of theater as son of the founders of Teater Koma in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Feedback can come from anyone in the team: the theater is a cooperation of a lot of people, and everyone is of equal importance – even the stage manager and crew.
Feedback can also come from other sources. For us, they include audience response and post-performance coverage from the media, newspaper and some TV stations. For instance, some of our plays are sensitive, where we talk about poor people but actually, people like it. Another time, we made a parody play about the King’s succession, which was later shutdown by the police 10 days into the play.
The best time to give feedback is after rehearsal, which is best done as a two-way discussion. To take on feedback, you need to have an open mind – so we try to broaden their thinking by showing them the different ways the team approaches their day-to-day: how we approach acting, how we approach the characters, how we lead the play, how we study the characters.
For us, we like to bring the feedback to life using real life experiences. Experiencing what you need to know about the script. If a part of the play is about portraying poor people, we bring them to the area – the slums – where they live to see it for themselves. Another example is when we were doing a scene about five people watching the train go by. We would go to the station in groups of five, watch the trains go by and learn the speed of your head movement, is it a fast train moving, slow, etc. Simple things like that.
One of the characteristics I have seen that makes a person more receptive to feedback is professionalism. With me for instance, I learned from my mother that while her husband is the director, he is the director, not her husband, when they are working. So that is also my mindset, whenever my father is the director, I see him as the director and not my father.
Rangga Riantiarno
Actor, Director & Writer
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Jessica started out as a conducting intern with the Western Australia Youth Orchestra. Since then, Jessica has forged an international career guesting with orchestras through Australia, America and Asia, and held various senior music director roles.
In my profession, there is a very blurred line between a conducting student and professional, as once you are on the podium, you are expected to be the leader no matter what your experience. This can be a big jump and leave you very vulnerable. The individual musicians are experts at what they do and it’s not always an encouraging space to learn how to lead. They want to work with the best conductors to get the best product. They make it clear, visually, if they don’t trust you from the start.
Learning to process feedback, beneficially, from the orchestra took time. When you are standing in front of 75 musicians on a podium, it can feel like a very lonely space. You have to be resilient enough to keep trying things even when you fail, which in my job is a very visible thing.
When conducting, because I can’t talk, body language is crucial. The musicians pick up that when I’m relaxed and in the moment, the music is fine, but when I pull the beat in and am not as expressive, they know where the focus needs to be until it settles again. Feedback in the moment is intuitive. They’re only watching me in periphery, but they know instantly when we need to readjust and refocus.
One of the key things I’ve learned is finding the balance of when to push the musicians, but also when to yield and let them just create. If I micromanage every note, we wouldn’t get through the piece and lose the overall vision.
There is also the need to realize the difference between musicians not understanding feedback or just not having the ability to respond to what has been asked of them. When your direction is beyond their capabilities, you need to use your experience to know how to compromise in the moment with the least sacrifice to the product.
Jessica Gethin
Conductor of the Adelaide Orchestra
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Ryan is an actor and freelance theater producer. He was the Manager of Strategic Advancement at Studio Theater and he serves on both the Strategic Planning and Membership committees of the National New Play Network where he was previously Producer in Residence. He was the Associate Producer on the 2018 Women’s Voices Theater Festival and spearheaded International Women’s Voices Day.
In the theater, feedback is the central thing. Many eyes are necessary to create a work that’s worthy. For someone developing their craft, the feedback of teachers/peers/community members etc. is the north star. So much of the work is dependent on how others view it. Knowing who to listen to and who not to listen to is also critical. Everyone has an opinion, but not everyone’s feedback is worth listening to. Part of that has to do with the person really understanding what I’m trying to do.
How powerful is the provision of immediate feedback? It depends enormously on what it is we’re doing and what the feedback is. Let’s say it’s four days before rehearsals start [for a show] and I need my interns to re-shift focus. Then immediate feedback is critical. But I don’t always think immediate feedback is the best strategy. It [depends] who it is you’re speaking to [and] what [your] relationship is with [them]. Is it a longer-term relationship? Or shorter-term? Is this something I offer now? Or do I sit on it because it could be part of a larger conversation down the line?
It’s really important for me to articulate what feedback looks like. Our teams are changing all the time, so we’re used to exercising the muscle of ‘that’s not going to work for me, but here is what will’. I’m very skeptical of a gospel on feedback; I’m very interested in a group of people self-defining and testing the best methods for feedback.
Feedback can always feel at first blush as an accusation or an attack, but I think the appropriate response should be ‘thank you’, consider it, and then decide how to respond. If it’s a leader you respect, you need to remember it costs them something to give you that feedback; there’s a lot of time and emotional cost to give feedback.
Ryan Patrick McLaughlin
Theater Producer
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With a rugby career of more than 17 years, Gordon is Ireland’s longest serving international. He has a decorated career, with three Heineken Cup wins, a challenge cup and four league titles to his name. He has also claimed two Six Nations titles and a Grand Slam whilst playing for Ireland. He retired in 2015 and is now a co-founder of Kids Speech Labs and writes frequently for the Irish Times.
For 11 years, Leinster failed to win a trophy despite having one of the most talented teams in Europe. Once the natural competitiveness of the group was harnessed, they were able to evolve a broken individually-focused ‘blame’ culture to a high-performance culture embracing feedback and they started to win.
In sport, the most important aspects for me were culture and values. They created a framework for the free flow of independent feedback, allowing it to move from a traditional, hierarchical system to one enabling the most respected and credible people to deliver the most feedback. Having a mutually accepted core mantra takes feedback away from the perceived positions of power, such as traditional leadership roles. Anyone can speak up, regardless of who they are. It provides empowerment for your peers to uphold the rules and basic standards that you have all agreed on. The most successful coaches are the ones who can take their hands off the wheel and let things become a self-sustaining feedback ecosystem.
A team is made up of individual moving parts and you need the whole organization to know exactly what they are doing and how they are contribution to the team. There are zero talent moments, such as adherence to the values and effort, but also a technical piece whereby a player needs absolute clarity on what is expected of them in order to enable them to succeed.
You need to have intimate knowledge of all your people in order to set them challenges, understand what’s driving them on any given day and know what will incentivize them. Feedback is not an individual endeavor, it is between two people. There has to be trust and respect; just because someone is higher ranked does not mean their feedback resonates if you don’t align with them.
Some people are lost in the one size fits all approach; feedback should not be one-dimensional. Some players become informal leaders. They tend to be those who embody the culture and make hard decisions look easy. They then guide peers in a positive way and become curators, influencers, and hold the most weight.
Gordon D’Arcy
Former Irish Rugby Player
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John is a Fire Captain with the City of Fairfax Fire Department at Fire Station 433. Within his role with the organization, he is responsible for managing a unit and station, coaching/managing employees and overseeing various programs and projects. John is also the Assistant Fire Chief of the Orlean Volunteer Fire Department in Fauquier County Virginia.
The importance of immediate feedback is engrained from day one in the fire service. Due to our profession, feedback is given immediately to our employees to correct or reinforce a trait, rather than at the end of an evaluation period, like in many corporate settings. This immediate feedback is given, whether positive or negative, since the value of correcting a behavior or actions diminishes when the incident is not fresh in the employees’ mind.
I believe this immediate feedback regarding an expectation is also crucial for mitigating the need for future escalating disciplinary action. In our line of work, it’s very cut and dry – there’s a right way to do things and there’s a wrong way; there’s an expectation and/or Operational Procedure and there’s a penalty for not meeting it. Regular feedback, whether it be a large Hot Wash after an emergency incident or a one-on-one conversation with an employee, is intended to enforce expectations. Disciplinary action caused by unclear expectations can immediately turn employees off, or in a volunteer setting even cause them to leave entirely.
I’ve found that if you address incidents with a coaching approach instead of immediate disciplinary action for non-acute situations, the employee learns more from the experience and interaction.
There’s a big difference between being a manager/supervisor and a leader. Both are in charge, but only the latter is found at the front, working alongside and understanding all members of the team’s positions. A supervisor follows and directs the orders of the organization. A leader completes those items while managing the strengths and weaknesses of each member of the team in order to make his or her unit/station(team) the best they can be. A leader strives to go above and beyond, not for them, but for the greater good of their employees, their team and the organization. Because of this, a leader is truly respected by their employees.
John Jeniec Jr.
Firefighter
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Hector is a Peruvian Chef and a successful businessman in Peru’s restaurant industry.
We receive feedback all the time. Our success depends on it. Since the beginning, we started to think about what we wanted to be as a restaurant or as a company and, after deciding what we wanted the customers and the world to see, we started on that path. That is why everything we do is tested with people who know the subject and can give us their feedback and that is why we have a company that is constantly evolving. It was born like that.
In this business, you must be humble enough to receive feedback, whether you are the owner, the chef or the waiter. We owe it to the customers. If we do not listen, we might be missing something important.
I always appreciate when clients call me to complain, because I have improved my technique from that.
In a restaurant, the feedback is constant—you cannot stop to explain and teach someone to correct his mistakes. Everyone knows that there is a lot of stress, and you have to perform with excellence no matter what. So, when someone yells at you, it is not something personal, you must correct and move on, as there is no time for grieving. But later, when the calm comes to the restaurant, we find the time to discuss what happened and how to make sure it won’t happen again.
For sure there is not a quiet kitchen in a restaurant, we are under pressure and speak loudly and energetically, but we must be very careful to never humiliate someone. This is a tough industry. To work in a restaurant, you must be willing to handle pressure and stress everyday while you stand for hours. It is not easy. So, we take very good care of our personnel, we train them, and we treat them as family, so they know that when we correct them it is because we are always looking for excellence and they have to get the best out of it.
Hector Solis
Restaurant Owner & Chef
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Morgan is an internationally renowned classical singer and performer. He has performed in venues including the Sydney Opera House, English National Opera, Moscow’s Bolshoi and the Royal Festival Hall.
For me, the best team environments are where feedback can be honest and direct – but also where directors put the scaffolding in place to allow us to experiment and fail. You don’t want a director that is too much of a control freak or perfectionist. You instead want someone who is willing to listen, that gives you more responsibilities to fail at in the beginning, but then gives you the space that allows these responsibilities to take shape.
To be able to thrive in these environments you need to be able to listen to feedback, to compartmentalize and process it – and this takes practice. You also need to learn that everyone has a different opinion. At any performance, if I polled the 2,000 people that were sitting in the audience, you would get some great reviews and some not-so-great ones.
You have to cultivate a thick skin, accepting that feedback will materialize in-person as well as online and learn how to process it in a way that is useful. I used to always tell people, ‘I never look at reviews’, but of course I do — and I look at tweets, as well. The key if you do this though, is finding a use for this direct feedback to help you improve. Crucially though, we need to understand that the feedback that is most useful, is the feedback [you] can do something about, well in advance of the first performance.
Honesty in feedback also includes being honest with yourself if the person you are working with has the potential to improve. I love trying to work with someone to try and get the best out of them. “You want to give feedback when you can see the potential for someone to improve. If there is no hope for them to be any better, then you steer people. I have previously advised aspiring young artists that they should pursue a career outside of music, because I can see what their skill level is. There are a huge number of people that need to be guided in a gentle way to find their career path.
Morgan Pearse
Opera Singer
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Ted joined Dutch National Ballet as a dancer in 1981 and continued to dance for 10 years before stopping to became a freelance choreographer. He has been artistic director of Dutch National Ballet since 2003. His leadership ushered in a new heyday for the company, which now ranks among the top 10 leading ballet companies in the world.
When I got the opportunity to become a director in Australia, I went to Perth, and I learned how to be a manager and deal with situations I had not encountered before: giving feedback to dancers, not only on their direct performances, but also on their career development.
Developmental feedback is tricky, as people very often have a different sense of themselves and their abilities.
If I have a dancer who doesn’t have a very good jump but happens to be a really beautiful lyrical dancer, it’s pointless for me to go ‘you should improve your jump to improve your range’, because I know that ability is not going to be there. So, it’s better to give the dancer a repertoire they can shine in and steer away from things that don’t fit, because that’s actually where you can really create stars – by pushing the things that people are really good at.
I try to give feedback in a way that is positive and encouraging, rather than putting people down. Sometimes even encouraging feedback to others, provided for their benefit, can make people take it the wrong way. It’s really about picking up signals from around me or from my staff. The more open a culture you have of being able to speak up and unafraid, the better it is.
To give effective feedback, you need to have authority in the field you are addressing. Credibility is key. This comes not from your position but what you know [and] how you share your knowledge. Older, more venerated, more respected individuals can be more blunt. People will not be so openly upset. But kindness is still very important. In the end, I believe everybody tries to do their best. Nobody is failing on purpose. As a leader, you have to help them find their way back or to somewhere else where they can blossom.
Ted Brandsen
Artistic Director at the Dutch National Ballet
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