Feedback and Counseling

In the military as a private, I was provided monthly feedback via counseling with my team leaders and squad leaders. That was my foundation and the basis of understanding that I was used to and that I came to value. Once I got into the contracting world I found that none of those systems existed that I had come so used to having. Now, fifteen or twenty years later, I still have yet to find the level of feedback that I had gotten used to in those formative years. 

I work with my direct reports and provide them feedback on a monthly basis because I find it useful. Most find it intrusive, I hope because they aren't used to that level of interaction. I've tried to institute feedback mechanisms to help critique and train our trainers and have found that in most cases these were used as platforms for revenge from one trainer to another. 

I've been surprised by how little formal feedback we in the corporate world, or perhaps it's the oil and gas industry, provide our direct reports and receive from our bosses. As a training institute, we go out of our way to get feedback from those that we train and the contractors who are our members, but we do very little for our direct reports. Perhaps this is because we are paid by our trainees and members and our direct reports come and go. Regardless, I really liked the emphasis that Brookfield placed on feedback and reflective learning tools in the book, but noticed that it was always from teacher to student (which of course makes sense as that was the focus of the book), but as leaders, we should not stop there but also look for ways to institute those systems in our organizations to the benefit of our workers.