Feedback Strategies

A "Good Job" Sticker

The two feedback articles that I read this week were both insightful as they both were centered around the notion of praise or in the case of the first article "good job." The first article I read tackled five reasons not to tell someone "good job," as it harmful for children especially. I specifically enjoyed the section where it discussed children struggling to accomplish their next task after being praised heavily on the first as it shows an interesting correlation between praise and success as well as the article providing multiple alternatives to the phrase. The second article focused on why managers seem to avoid praise, which started by explaining that roughly the same percent of managers avoid positive and negative feedback. This is interesting as they are both for different reasons as negative feedback tends to hurts people's feelings while positive feedback tends to boost ego in some cases and create a praise craving possibly. Regardless this article finishes by saying that praise is a good thing, but in moderation as it has some negative side-effects when unchecked.

Feedback Thoughts

(Fixed Mindset link: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-26/fixed-vs-growth-mindset-at-work-and-in-life/9897782)
(Rejection link: https://ideas.ted.com/why-rejection-hurts-so-much-and-what-to-do-about-it/)

Growth Mindset tips vs Fixed Mindset

The first article I read offered good advice on avoiding the fixed mindset as it can stall or even stunt one's intellectual growth. So often today I see that people see challenges as intense hurdles rather than an opportunity to reach out of their comfort zone. The second article I read covered why rejection causes so much pain for people and had multiple ways to deal with it when it happens. I really liked the point of keeping or "reviving" your own self-worth as it is a great way to bounce back from a rejection. The most productive feedback I have ever received was when I was a junior in high school and unsure of what I should do after graduation, my Physics teacher at the time told me after class that ".. I had a really good sense and should stick with it," in regards to Physics and later my major Mechanical Engineering. As for the most negative I can't think of any specific time outside of being told I didn't have a future in Spanish in my Spanish 3 class in high school. Lastly, a good anecdote of a time I received good feedback was after my freshman year at my internship, when after completing a motor test fast to try and get it to my boss before lunch, an older intern read through it and helped me find an error and told me that "it's better to take your time and meticulously get it right than rush out something to make someone happy." While this sounds harsh it is paramount in the engineering world as the safety of many rely on what we work on.