Open and honest feedback

When’s the last time you received open and honest feedback?

I used to ask my clients how they liked my services and they’d say “great!”  Though it fed my ego, it wasn’t that useful.

I’d ask them questions like “what could we do better?” which changed to “what would you like to see more of?” and received slightly more useful responses.  

Only after proactively bringing up the weakest parts of my services, and how their thoughts could really impact a larger community, would they start to give real feedback.

The hard part wasn’t asking for feedback. The hard part was gaining their trust that open and honest feedback would be received in a pleasant way, and would be acted on.

Too often, in the past, their opinions were met with pushback and later, disregarded.

What’s your approach to receiving open and honest feedback, especially when stakes are high?

Thanks for caring!

With gratitude,

Anwell Tsai