#211 Feedback

As a member of the Better Leaders, Better Schools Mastermind, I value the weekly opportunity to engage in professional development with educators from around the world.

The one hour meeting on Zoom has various components including, but not limited to, sharing of ideas, discussion about the text (the photo above shows some of those texts read over the last year) as well as opportunities to share concerns and for members to ask clarifying questions, dig deeper with issues and offer suggestions and practical tips.

I thoroughly enjoy the various texts we read.

Whilst the focus of the books is not educational in the traditional sense, the texts are relevant to all of us in schools: Be that an international school in the US, a school on a Reservation, a private school in South America, public schools on the East Coast, a private international school in Asia. The list goes on.

The texts resonate at the time of reading and even more so during our discussions when we share perspectives and experiences, ask pertinent questions, reflect on poignant points in the text and consider how we can take our understanding and learnings into our particular educational settings.

I frequently find myself coming back to key elements of the texts weeks and months later.

• Dolly Chugh’s The Person You Mean to Be, Ibrahim X. Kendi’s How to be an Antiracist and Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste raise one’s knowledge and understanding of historical events, practices and social norms and how these impacted and continue to impact the lives of people today and reiterates the imperative for social justice initiatives under the umbrella of diversity equity, inclusion and belonging for all within our diverse societies. Chug’s phrase "Invisibility is the very nature of ordinary privilege" (in Chapter Five, The Power of Ordinary Privilege, on page 119) very much resonated (as referenced in my July 2021 blogpost) and continues to resonate deeply with me and is one on which I often meditate.

• With regards to Simon Sinek’s The Infinite Game, I found the image illustrating the correlation between trust and performance to be very informative (as indicated in my November 2020 blogpost) and is one I continue to hold onto.

• Whilst reading Douglas Stone’s and Sheila Heen’sThanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well, I especially enjoyed the way in which they defined feedback in terms of the three components (appreciation, coaching, and evaluation) and the purpose thereof (see image below from page 35 of the text).

Since reading Stone and Heen’s text, I find myself not asking for generic feedback, but rather being more specific in my request. I have found that by doing this the feedback I have received has been more useful and, ultimately, actionable. I recently watched Daniel Pink’s pinkcast entitled This is how big time performers get the feedback they need in which he shared to not ask for feedback, but to ask for advice which - with regard to the coaching component - is relevant.