I once read a leadership book that talked about the fact that you should always listen to and action feedback. I disagree. As a former classroom trainer, I would get ‘smile sheets’ at the end of every workshop that would rate me and provide me with immediate feedback on my ‘performance’. When I first started training, I hated those sheets. I would agonize over every single negative piece of feedback and ruminate over them for days or even weeks following the session particularly if the feedback seemed unfounded.
I noticed that the feedback that bugged me the most was given by the really lousy workshop participants. ‘Why can’t I rate them??’ I would grumble. It was then that I had the revelation that, just because someone is giving you feedback, it doesn’t mean you have to listen to it if they aren’t qualified to give it to you. Evaluate the feedback and the person delivering it equally and then decide if it has any merit. Yes, action constructive feedback but crappy feedback…feel free to ignore it.
