My CEO Life

I recently wrote an article on one of the other blogs that I run in which I gave my view on a market and how the players are performing in that market.  Now the article was meant as a wakeup call for one of those players who I thought had become a little lazy however they took it as a slight against them.

This got me thinking about how you should give feedback and what could happen if you happen to take it as it is meant.

Firstly, people usually only give you feedback if they really care.  It is not often that someone goes out of their way to tell you what they really think and those that don’t care, tend to avoid it preferring to avoid conflict and not caring if you succeed or fail.

When you are giving feedback to someone, it is important that it has the following characteristics …

• Is fair
• Is genuine
• Is backed by facts
• Refers to specific acts or events that have occurred
• Has specific actions for you to take
• Is delivered in a caring but dispassionate manner

If the feedback is delivered in this manner, then there is a good chance that the recipient will take it well.

Now for a message to work, it has to be received well.  Therefore it is important for the person receiving the message to understand that the message is being delivered with all the best intentions in the world.

The best example I have seen of this recently is from Britain’s Got Talent.  Simon Cowell delivered some salient advice to a young contestant, Shaheen Jafargholi.  If nothing else, you will smile!

1. Launching Property Portal Watch (in Beta of course :))

   I have been very busy since leaving the REA Group (realestate.com.au) a few weeks ago. One of the things that i have been working on is the launch of Property Portal Watch. This site is designed to provide readers with...

2. Employee Ownership of a Business – Important to Long Term Success

   I have worked in a number of businesses and i find that employee ownership in the business is important to the long term success of that business. In talking to employees who have some sort of ownership in a business,...

3. Its Not Me … But it Does Raise an Interesting Question

   I received this email earlier on today and while i am not the CEO of Sears, it does raise an interesting question of failure in customer service and the value of getting in touch directly with the CEO. I AM...

4. Building a Business on Passion

   I was recently thinking about what makes a great person in the business i run and the common trait that kept coming to mind was PASSION. It seems to me that my team members who are truly great are those...

5. Pennies from Heaven

   Have you ever had on of those days when things go right and more importantly, something great just pops up and you cant say no. Well i had one of those days last week.  I was working away and received...