Working from home is great! You have freedom, no commute, and can come and go as you please. But it also makes one important thing harder: getting helpful feedback about your job.
When everyone worked in an office, managers and teammates could give you quick tips face-to-face. You could see their body language and hear their tone of voice, giving you clues about what they meant.
Now, with remote work, those easy chats don’t happen as much. This means it’s easier to misunderstand feedback.
To grow fast in a remote job, you have to create a positive feedback loop for feedback. Learn how to ask for it, listen well, and use it to make a clear plan.
This guide shows you simple steps to use remote feedback to grow faster in your remote career.
How to Ask for Feedback When Working From Home
In a remote team, the best feedback comes when you ask for it. If you wait for your manager to talk, the advice might be too late or not clear enough. It’s a key part of managing up.
You need to be clear, accommodating, and create a positive feedback loop.
Soliciting feedback from remote teams means you need to take the first step.
Simple Rules for Getting Remote Feedback
You need to solve simple problems when learning how to get feedback remotely:
- Be Fast: If the feedback is about something you just finished, ask for the input as soon as you can. This makes sure the details are fresh in everyone’s mind and the advice is very specific.
- Ask How They Want to Give It: Don’t expect an email. Some people like to write down their thoughts. Others prefer a video call so you can talk right away. Ask your teammate, “What way is best for you to give this feedback?” This helps both of you feel good about the talk.
I used to ask for feedback in meetings, right after I presented my work. Oftentimes this doesn’t work. Your team is not in the right headspace for feedback.
Instead, follow-up after the call. Give your team time to digest and find ways to make it better. This works well with thoughtful team members who are not quick to judge.
What is a Positive Feedback Loop for Performance Feedback
A positive feedback loop for feedback allows feedback to become a springboard for growth. You need to act on performance feedback, not just hear it. The positive feedback loop is when feedback creates change, making your work better.
That means asking the right feedback questions. To get advice you can actually use, you need to ask specific questions.
Here is a list of questions to ask for performance feedback.
- How can I become the best team member you have ever had?
- What metrics are most important to you and am I on track to hit your goals for me?
- If you could remove 10% of the work I completed, what 10% is least valuable?
- If I had to double down on one thing to make this better, what would it be?
These questions not only ask for good feedback, they create actionable insights. This is how a positive feedback loop works. You need advice that actually drives change.
You can also ask these questions again and again. If you’re doing the positive feedback loop well, the answer should always be different.
Turning Constructive Criticism into a Foundation for Growth
Everyone thinks they want constructive criticism. Then, they hear it and immediately reject it. Making excuses, reasoning, or attacking the character of the person offering.
It is normal to feel upset when you get suggestions for change, especially if they are difficult to hear. In remote work, if you only read the words and can’t see the face, it can feel even worse .
The key to turning negative feedback into growth is staying calm and choosing to learn.
The Rules for Listening during Feedback
Listening, and I mean really listening is the key to feedback. If you’re asking for feedback and not listening, you create a negative feedback loop.
A negative feedback loop for feedback doesn’t help anyone. The person no longer wants to give you feedback, and you don’t improve. Lose, Lose.
When responding to constructive criticism remotely, follow these simple rules:
- Shut your mouth: Don’t argue or try to explain yourself. Your first thought is not your best one. Stay calm and listen.
- Clarify: Ask questions. Ask for specifics. Get examples. Vague feedback is not useful to anyone.
- Show appreciation: Especially if the feedback is hard. It is as uncomfortable for them to say it as it is for you to hear it.
If you listen and ask good questions, you should have actions and changes that come out of it. Now, you have to turn constructive criticism into continuous learning.
Continuous Learning After Hard Feedback (The Positive Feedback Loop)
The most successful people in remote jobs know how to use hard feedback to their advantage. This is the positive part of the positive feedback loop.
Instead of feeling attacked, change your focus. Feedback is nothing more than information. You now get to choose what you do with the information.
You can ignore it and stay the same. Making no effort to become better
Or, you can find a way to incorporate the feedback. This way of thinking is the “growth mindset.” It means you see feedback as a chance to get better.
By dealing with hard feedback right away, you show that you are flexible and want to be excellent. That is how you use actionable feedback for remote growth.
How to Take Action on Remote Feedback
Taking action on feedback is simple but not easy. It requires you to record the feedback, remember the feedback, and apply the feedback. Doing this will create your new standard, and you get better.
Below, I break down the 3 steps into detail:
Record the feedback: You’re going to forget the feedback. You won’t want to remember it, it hurts. So, you need it to be somewhere you can revisit it. A notebook, a word doc, anywhere that is easily accessible.
Remember the feedback: Next time your on a project, open the feedback doc. Revisit the things you need to improve on. Remember how it felt to get the feedback, you don’t want that again.
Apply the feedback: Action on it. It seems simple but you will forget. Your old patterns will request that you do it the easy way. Ignore the old you and become the new you.
Again, this is simple but not easy. I’ve ran into this many times. I hear feedback, I remember it but I don’t apply it. Then I’m stuck in the same loop again.
Breaking this cycle and applying the feedback is how I’ve found success in my roles.
Remote Feedback is the Positive Feedback Loop you Need.
What’s easier than figuring out what you did wrong? Having someone else tell you what they didn’t like. That makes it obvious. All you need to do is create action.
Remote work is accelerated by feedback. The best remote workers take feedback as their guardrails and move forward.
Feedback can be difficult to master. The Forge Coaching can help you develop the soft skills needed to be successful in a remote role.
