Think about the last time you looked in the mirror and saw something glaring at you from the front of your teeth. Whether it was a piece of spinach, flakes of corn, or some other food, I’m sure one of the first questions that came to mind was, “How long has that been there?” You think back to the last meal you had and realize it was several hours ago. In the meantime, you’ve had a number of different interactions with other individuals, none of whom ever mentioned that you had something in your teeth. This brings about a second question, “Why didn’t anybody say something?” Too often people stay quiet when they should instead be providing constructive feedback and pointing out “the spinach in another person’s teeth.”
Here are two reasons why people might hesitate to give others constructive feedback.
- It’s not my place. Unless your role is of a manager or coach, providing constructive feedback to others isn’t necessarily in your job title.
- It feels weird. You never know how people are going to react to information about something they didn’t do so well.
Here are three reasons why you should give others constructive feedback and point out the “spinach in their teeth.”
- Constructive feedback helps others grow. The same way you can’t remove the spinach from your teeth if you don’t know about it, you can’t grow if you don’t where you need to grow. Constructive feedback helps people identify their growth areas so that they can focus on developing them.
- Constructive feedback builds trust and strengthens relationships. If you approach another individual with some feedback, this displays a value for the other person.
- Constructive feedback helps the bottom line. Regardless of the industry in which you are working, feedback helps people grow and get better in their roles. When they are better at what they do, the organization benefits as a whole.
Next time you feel hesitant about providing somebody with constructive feedback, ask yourself if it would be fair to that individual to walk around with spinach in their teeth when you could have brought it to their attention so they could pick it out.
