Welcome to Giving Helpful Feedback. Some people find giving feedback easy, and others struggle every time they give feedback. The ability to give feedback is probably a bit of a gift, something you're born with, but is also something you can learn. One thing does seem true, and that is that giving feedback is both an analytical component and an emotional component. You've just completed the analytical component, which involves learning principles and figuring things out. This kind of activity occurs in the neocortex of the brain. The emotional component involves the ability to control your own emotions, and a self-awareness of your impact on others. According to emotional researcher Daniel Goleman, these capabilities are largely due to neurotransmitters in the brain's limbic system, which is the source of drives, feelings, and impulses. The limbic system, according to Goleman, learns best under three conditions, when people are motivated, when they get extended practice, and when they get feedback. In other words, you'll need to want to change. You'll need to work at changing for a while. And you'll need to get as much feedback as possible a long the way. Let's discuss motivation first, and practice and feedback second. Motivation is an internal process that initiates, guides, and sustains us in our drive toward a goal. What is driving you to learn about feedback? Would you like to become a better manager? Do you want to build relationships or better teams? Studies have shown that specific and challenging goals motivate performance better than vague goals. For example, here's a vague goal which isn't too challenging. I'm going to try my best to give feedback using the seven feedback principles in my performance evaluations for the coming year. Here's another example, but this one is specific and challenging. In my next seven performance evaluations, I'll use the seven feedback principles. I'll get a manager to sit in on the first evaluation, and that manager will give me feedback. I will also self-rate my performance on the remaining six. I'll incorporate the feedback into each subsequent performance evaluation. As you set out to use the feedback principles, find your own motivation. That's why you're doing it, and make sure its meaningful for you. Then set specific and challenging goals, just make sure the goals are not so challenging that you want to give up. Now let's turn to feedback and practice. Feedback and practice go hand in hand. Think about learning a sport, your coach will give you feedback on the fine points of soccer, and you'll go out and practice them until your game improves. The same thing will happen for giving feedback. You must find opportunities to practice feedback, either positive or negative, and consciously use what we learned. You'll need a coach, and there are two options. The first option is that you serve as your own coach, and then the second option is that you get someone else to coach you. If you are your own coach, you must be diligent about planning and remembering the feedback session. If you did three of the seven steps, you would write this down and then make it a goal next time to do seven out of the seven. A better approach is to have a coach learn the seven skills from the videos, and then observe you in a feedback session, or in situations where you're delivering feedback. Alternatively, you could roleplay a session with your coach before you get it. No matter which method you choose, self coaching or practicing with a coach, you need to be motivated, you need to practice over an extended period of time, and you need to receive feedback in order to improve. That's how you learn to dance the waltz, that's how you learn to play darts, that's how we all learn to get along with other people, and so on. It doesn't happen in a week, not in a month, but you will improve. To get you started we've put together a simple plan for you to set goals, find a coach, and create a path to success. I wish you the best of luck. This is Tracy Jennings, and thanks for watching Giving Helpful Feedback. [MUSIC]