Self-Feedback to Create the You You Want to Be

 

Self-feedback is a great way to evaluate yourself. Unfortunately, many of us are not so good at taking the time to examine our behaviors or our habitual actions in a given situation. Self-feedback challenges us to ask ourselves how it is we feel about the work we do, the lifestyle we live, and even, how it is, we treat people.

About Self-Feedback and Evaluation

Experts suggest that our ability to conduct a self-evaluation in which we carefully examine our abilities, behaviors, and characteristics requires that we prepare ourselves for a journey through the valley decision-making and self-reflection. At some point, self-feedback will call on us to decide whether or not we always make the best decisions.

Next, self-feedback commands us to evaluate ourselves through the lens of personal experiences, social comparisons, and observations.  Also, we tend to make assumptions about how others see us, and we draw from it to form an opinion about ourselves.

Advantages of Self-Feedback

Self-feedback has multiple benefits that we can use to our advantage.

Self-Reflection

First, self-feedback allows for us to examine what it is that motivates us and what things trigger results. Self-feedback challenges each one of us to revisit our triumphs and mistakes, and it encourages us to initiate a deep-dive into examining lessons learned.

Also, it allows us to acknowledge our positive and negative attributes. It challenges us to analyze our values, and what it is that drives our feelings about self and how it is we go about balancing these things. We have the power to take this information and use it as a foundation towards creating the person we want to be.

Encourages Input from Others

Although this process requires us to conduct a self-appraisal of sorts, it also requires us to seek feedback from other people. The way we see ourselves sometimes does have close ties to how others see us as well. The opinions of others occasionally contribute to our subjective perceptions about who we are as a human being.

It does require a unique skill set to assess how it is others perceive us, take that information and consider it from the perspective of the presenter and then use those details. Thus, you become a manager of what other people think of you and also, the degree to which you can influence others.

Your goal should be to solicit external input from those who know you. Sometimes, input from others can open our eyes even more to the things do or don’t do so well.

Self-Improvement

Self-feedback opens the doors to taking the information you gain from self-reflection and others to use it to enhance the person we are. It’s an opportunity to push the reset button on all of our character traits. We can use our findings to slowly make changes within ourselves, leading us to ditch non-productive behaviors and learn ways to adopt new habits that generate positive results in our lives and the people we engage.

Improves Self-Esteem and Confidence

Self-feedback can be a boost to your self-esteem and confidence. Identifying the value, you give to your workplace, your family, your friends or even yourself can go a long way to boost your self-confidence and self-esteem. You can learn to focus on those things and improve upon them further rather than always focusing on your weaknesses.

Practicing Self-Feedback

Practicing self-feedback is a skill and can be difficult for some to execute or even master in a way that is meaningful. First and foremost, you have to be unapologetically open and honest with yourself, even when the self-observation is negative or uncomfortable. This process will require you to step outside of your comfort zone and take a long, hard look at who you are.

You can’t sugarcoat anything if you are genuinely seeking to make changes or improvements. A few examples of questions that you might ask yourself when seeking self-feedback about your role in the workplace include:

• What strengths do you bring to your current job role?
• What contributions have you made to the team, department or company?
• What opportunities do you have to improve? What do you need to change?
• What are you doing well?

A few examples of questions that you might ask yourself about your personal life include:

• What are my values?
• What are the things that motivate me and are they productive?
• What replenishes my energy?
• What are my strengths?
• What holds me back from achieving goals or doing big things?

To become the person you want to be, you must practice self-awareness and begin to answer questions such as these about yourself consistently. Journaling is one method you might use to capture your self-feedback, but there are printable or online resources available on sites like positivepsychologyprogram.com, lifeskillsthatmatter.com, and onewiselife.com.

In summary, for self-feedback to be effective and yield results, you have to be ready to make the improvements and receive the feedback and input of others. A closed mind will not benefit from the practice of self-feedback. You must move with intention and empower yourself to engage in the process actively.