One of the first tasks we’ve been assigned for the Penn State Emerging Leaders program is to identify potential respondents for an activity called the “Multi-Rater Survey.” I’ve never experienced a survey like this before, so I am looking forward to doing the self-assessment portion of this activity. However, I found myself having some anxiety over choosing respondents. On a surface level, I realize it’s important and necessary to get feedback from colleagues from time to time in order to assess your own performance, but personally I am always nervous about it. Even when I get SRTE results from students, I get nervous about checking them. In fact, as an undergraduate I rarely read comments from instructors about my work as long as my scores were high enough. At that point in my career, it was better for me not to know because I had a habit of letting criticism linger far too long on my mind. As an older, more experienced professional, I believe I’ve come a bit farther in controlling my reactions to criticism.
I’m certain I’m not the only one who experiences this anxiousness when it comes to finding out others’ opinions on our work, and I try to remind myself of that every time I’m receiving any sort of feedback because it helps to know that it’s a normal, common feeling experienced by other professionals who care about the work they do. Another strategy that I try to utilize is reminding myself that there’s more to me as person than my work. I don’t live to work, I work to support the life I want to live. Criticism in my professional life doesn’t always need to carry over into my non-professional life, and it shouldn’t. Separation and balance are essential factors that I will keep in mind when I get my Multi-Rater feedback.
Your are right! Lots of share anxiety about receiving feedback. Ask my colleagues, I can get very anxious about our evaluation process for programs, even about the ones that I don’t deliver, that I simply oversee. One strategy I use if I am particularly concerned about looming feedback is to internally assess how I think it went and try to give myself “honest” feedback before I read that of the evaluators. I think the thing that I get anxious about is being caught off guard – that feeling of being completely unaware or oblivious to how others perceived or received me. This pre-assessment helps me offset that. You had a chance to do a self-assessment so you won’t be blind sided by the feedback. You know the framework provided to everyone for the feedback and generally the topics that will be addressed. The other thing I share is that while some feedback may be challenging to hear, everyone gets some surprises. These are the things you didn’t realize you were doing well that others see in you. Maybe things you undervalue in yourself that really are having a positive impact. It makes for a nice balance.