Feedback Response is Important. Good feedback is like manna from heaven. Poor feedback can kills gains and even end your writing career before it even starts.
I like working through leadership books. I got hooked on the idea by my karate Sensei. Later the Marines hammered the concept of learning more about leadership. Today, I keep on learning for the main reason that everyone is a leader.
Always Leading
Humans are leading all the time. We lead in our social groups. Sometimes we lead as a member of a team we work with. At home it is our family or among our friends when we hang out. We are even leading people we do not know by our example as we go about our days. However, the most forgotten leadership position is that we are also leading ourselves. That is the one position we do all the time. It is by far our greatest responsibility. We screw up that and we send ourselves and the rest down the same rat hole. Our only tool is feedback. How we respond to that feedback is important.
That’s part of the reason I have been spending some of my mornings this year working through Chet Scott’s 365 day long training book Becoming Built to Lead. I really like his dive in approach of sound advice focused on building your internal base by learning about yourself from you as you work to improve your leadership skills over the course of the year. He has some great feedback in those lessons, like a walking version of Kipling’s If The correct response should be to see the importance of what he is talking about. Then apply it.
Lessons From Scott
Today’s little slowdown period started out talking about Lionel Messi of the Paris Saint-Germaine soccer team. It would be fair to say I am a distance from being the greatest soccer fan. I watch the occasional game, like when the Italians play the Germans. My knoledge is just enough to keep up with the game and appreciate much of the skill the players have. I even know of some of the better players. Though, you don’t need even that much to agree with Scott’s belief that Messi is a master of his game. Anyone watching can see that on the field Messi is in his element. He has mastered the game to an amazing level of play. Just watch him play and pay attention to how hard they have to work when he has the ball. The story is written in their faces.
The interesting thing is, as Scott points out, that he is very dominate on his left foot. He is not really the balanced player many people might think a player of his level would be. In fact his right foot is not all that good. This is for most players a distinct disadvantage. It’s not really a secret either. Everyone knows this, not just on his team but all the other teams as well. This does not stop him from playing so well. His strategy is to just focus on brining his natural dominance to an even greater level of play. He raises the bar to such a level that even with such insider understanding no one can touch him. He is proof that you do not need to be totally rounded in everything to master your work. Instead choose to become extraordinary.
Put It In Play
So, how do you become an extraordinary writer?
The answer for Scott is found in the feedback we get from our work. You need feedback and running from it is not an option. You should be running to it. Absorb all the feedback. Drink it deep.
Though, here’s the first key point….only learn from 1% of everything you take in. Let the rest just flow through you. None of that stuff is worth your time because it really does not have an effect on what matters. What matters is the work itself. That’s where you get your answers. That’s where we need to focus. We are focusing on what feedback improves your work.
The important point in feedback is how we respond
You have to ask the hard questions. Does the feedback even apply? Will it produce real improvements? That one two combo knocks out much unneeded information and clears your mental decks to really use the remaining feedback effectively. We all need feedback that strengthens our work. We can and should ignore the feedback imposters that stroke our egos like approval and popularity. So too, the negative side of the coin gets the bin. Focus instead on doing the work and your mastery of that work. As Steven Pressfield points out you find the payoff in the work. You don’t find it in the emotions about your work. Your pay off is the joy of the job itself. The payoff is better when you used the right feedback to make your work stronger.
Photo by Jason Rosewell on Unsplash