Quote of the Week: “Feedback is the breakfast of champions.” – Ken Blanchard

We are all good at something. Some are good at multiple things. The single fastest way to get better is to get feedback, but few are good at providing it, and fewer still are good at receiving it.

Every year during 'Performance Review Season' I tried to distribute the booklet pictured here to all members of the team in the hopes that it would help them receive feedback that would help them.

Some accepted feedback and improved. Others were the 'smartest person in the room' and rejected it. In my mind, an absolutely terrible career and financial decision-maybe the worst one that can be made.

This week's story is about a time I received some very blunt feedback, and how it changed the course of my business career, for the better.

Every time I see the Texaco sign, I think of this story.

In the eighties, I had a job as the Regional Operations Director for a national restaurant chain and my territory consisted of Central and Southern California. I only had a few locations in Orange County, which back then did not have the glamour it has now, but I had 40 stores in the Los Angeles area, and more in Santa Barbara, Bakersfield, and High Desert north of LA. Altogether I had 56 restaurants within my area of responsibility, millions of dollars in revenue and thousands of employees, and those that know me know that I can tell stories for days about the 2 years I spent in this job.

I was a couple of months into the job and it was time for the Regional Vice President to ‘Tour Stores’ with me. Touring stores is the technical term for visiting a lot of stores in one day, meeting the manager and staff, doing a quick inspection, maybe having a cup of coffee, or discussing a marketing promotion or policy and moving on.

We left our Santa Barbara office about 7:00 AM and drove the 100 miles to Los Angeles and visited 10-12 locations. Because I did this type of thing on a regular basis, there was a Texaco station in Camarillo where I always stopped and filled up my tank at night before heading home, so I was ready for travel the next day (in this role, I drove more than 50,000 miles a year, so full-tank planning was important.)

I had my Texaco credit card in the car visor, I had a receipt envelope between the seats, I knew exactly what station and what pump to pull into and really had the simple process down pat.

As we pulled out of the station to head back to the Regional Office, the RVP said to me something like this:

“After spending the day with you and visiting your stores, I have identified what you do best.” I was pretty excited to have this senior person share his thoughts with me, until he said: “Getting gas.” In response to my quizzical look, he said: “Ed you really know how to get gas, but unless you do a better job at a lot of other things, you aren’t going to make it.”

Getting gas. High praise in the LA world, but not exactly the type of feedback I was looking for.

Over the next six months, in part because I was so receptive to his feedback, our one-on-one sessions turned into private training classes rather than pounding sessions. 

He would share a concept or critique my work and I would try the method or revise my methods and report back. Gradually, my numbers and other factors improved, and on subsequent Store Tours the cleanliness, organization, and management team knowledge and professionalism improved as well.

I became better at more than getting gas, although it remained a strong suit. In fact, I became better at ‘a lot of other things’ and about a year later, when that VP was promoted to manage the San Francisco and Seattle Regions, and needed a right-hand man to manage the San Francisco for him in his new role, guess who he selected? The guy who at one time could only list ‘getting gas’ in the excellence column.

The lessons he taught me kept getting applied in my new role as Director of Operations in Northern California, and my skills developed and expanded and eventually when he moved into the corporate office, guess who became the new Regional Vice-President of San Francisco and Seattle? Me and my Texaco card.

There is no guarantee you will be promoted if you accept feedback. There is also not a guarantee that you will be happier or feel better about your personal life if you get feedback. But there is a guarantee that you will not progress and develop at the same rate if you create a ‘feedback free’ bubble around yourself.

In my career, I have observed that the most frequent waste of talent happens when someone doesn’t accept feedback. We’ve all heard of the glass ceiling: some people carry around their own glass because they reject feedback that doesn’t agree with their self-perception. Almost everyone reading this knows someone like that. If it’s you, I recommend a different approach.

My business career is not the result of being told that getting gas was what I did best. What changed the trajectory was someone taking the time to give feedback to someone who wanted it. In this example, if I had rejected the feedback, I might be in a very different place, who knows?

PERFORM: Demonstrated performance or activity with someone paying attention. That means either someone who has to pay attention or someone who cares.

If you don’t have someone paying attention, find someone who cares. And if you don’t have someone who cares, find someone who is paying attention. Your attitude about accepting feedback has a huge impact on this.

PERMIT: The person or persons paying attention need(s) to be authorized or have permission from YOU to give feedback.

Feedback may be hard to receive, but in my experience, it is even harder to give. Rarely have I provided feedback without permission to do so. It just doesn’t work well. The best way for you to grant permission? Ask for feedback. That not only grants permission but demonstrates your attitude about accepting feedback and has a huge impact on this.

PROCESS: The feedback needs to be accepted, understood, and processed. Listening and hearing needs to take place so that the feedback is understood. Whoever gives you feedback knows if you get it by the light bulb over your head when it clicks on. Your attitude about accepting feedback has a huge impact on this.

PLAN: The feedback needs to be incorporated into future planned behavior. Talk is cheap. The way you prove you have processed feedback is by your future actions. Your attitude about accepting feedback has a huge impact on this.

PROGRESS: Follow up feedback on progress or performance also needs to take place. The person who is paying attention or the person who cares (in a perfect world, the same person) needs to circle back and verify or validate the change. Your attitude about accepting feedback has a huge impact on this.

If you had any doubts before, you should feel pretty comfortable that your attitude about accepting feedback has a huge impact on your…future. Who do you know who could tell you that the best thing you do is getting gas?

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