Are you an energizer, connecter, analyzer, or achiever? There’s only one way to find out!
👉 Just wanna take the quiz? Click here to skip to it now! 👈
Feedback is a difficult thing for both the person giving it and the person receiving it. Good news all around and have something positive to share? Easy peasy. That’s why you should learn about your feedback style!
But it becomes less and less simple when we try to start weaving in areas of growth or navigating potentially sensitive feedback with the other person. That’s why it’s really important to be intimately familiar with how you like to give feedback! 🤓
Many of us see the value of getting constructive feedback from those we trust so that we know where we shine, and where we can continue to get better. More than ever, we see people asking for feedback in every professional milestone, from asking hiring managers for feedback when we don’t land a job, to understanding how we can keep our 5/5 on our performance reviews.
But, the trouble is…managers and independent contributors alike find it really tough to give feedback.
Quartz at work reports that 1/5th of managers avoid it and almost 45% of them feel an overt amount of stress when having to share the feedback we consider negative. So it’s important to learn not only about effective ways to facilitate feedback but to also know how your unique habits and skills play into the dynamics of giving effective feedback.
Why is my feedback style important?
Just like everything communications-related, we have our own habits, quirks, and strengths when it comes to giving feedback. But knowing that this can be a tricky situation to navigate, it’s best to understand your natural instincts: how do you prefer to share feedback? What’s important to you? What do you tend to focus on?
When you can get a handle on your personal feedback style, it empowers you to hone in on what makes you most comfortable, identify some blind spots, and most importantly, understand how your personal style meshes with the person receiving feedback.
For example, if you know someone on your team is a little more self-conscious about a specific skill they’re still picking up, being hypercritical without being aware of their motivations or how you phrase your language is likely not going to help with the relationship or dynamic of the feedback session, you know?
I’ve identified 4 main feedback styles across a few key dimensions. Ready to jump in and see which style best matches yours?
Take this quiz to find out what your feedback style is!
I’ve come up with a handy self-assessment to help you start exploring what makes you shine and what maybe makes you feel a little uncomfortable when giving feedback.
Check it out below. Once you’re done, come back and we’ll talk about what your individual style means!
So…What are you?
OK, so you took the quiz and now, you know which of the 4 styles you generally fall into: analyzer, achiever, connector, or energizer.
Emphasis on generally! We may change our feedback style periodically depending on who we’re talking to, how we’re feeling, or the nature/severity of the feedback, but this gives us a good baseline to work off of.
How strongly you score on the two dimensions also can tell you how strongly you resemble your style. The micro vs macro tells us whether you tend to focus on the granular details or the big picture. Whereas the human vs fact dimension determines if you focus on the numbers/evidence or the motivations/intentions of the other party.
So what did you get? Read below to see the superpowers and potential blindspots of each style.
Analyzers 📈
Alright. you’re an analyzer. Cool, you’re basically the Ravenclaws of the bunch. Here are some details about this specific style and some of this style’s best assets!
- You are driven by facts, numbers, and concrete information. They tell the best stories, after all. There’s no hiding behind well-done analyses.
- Before giving feedback, you tend to want to collect a lot of information about actions and thoroughly document how things happened, what the outcome is, and how it impacts different metrics.
- When giving feedback, you’re able to paint a pretty direct picture between someone’s specific actions and the byproducts, both good and bad, across different variables and measures.
- Feedback needs to be clear-cut! This is what you really excel at when sharing information with someone else.
The 2 things to watch out for
As an analyzer, your precision and focus are on giving the most accurate and detailed account possible. In an effort to collect all of the facts and data required to make the most compelling point, it means you don’t always have the most timely feedback.
A Gallop poll with over 66K employees found that up to 80% of folks want to hear feedback as things are happening to make instantaneous changes to their actions. Not to mention, leaders who prioritized sharing regular feedback were able to reduce turnover by 15%!
Facts and clear cut concepts might also not always be the most humanistic way to share insights. Remember that behind facts, there are also motivations, intentions, and emotions, even if you’re right. Try asking more open ended questions, and wrap facts in some stories or context to ensure that you’re taking a holistic approach with feedback!
Achievers 🏆
Achievers are confident folks and aren’t afraid to tell it like it is, as soon as you notice there’s something to talk about: good, bad, or ugly. Your superpower is staying very organized and clear with how individuals’ goals are tied to the larger team’s roadmap. You’re inherently a big picture person and expect those around you to play their part in your common success!
- You’re highly results-driven; feedback is shared so that you, as a team, can achieve the goals you all set out to accomplish. Sometimes, it means pushing everyone else on the team beyond their comfort zones and setting high standards.
- Like Analyzers, you let facts, numbers, and concrete information tells you what you need to know.
- You are able to make quick decisions and know how different pieces of a puzzle come together. That’s sometimes really helpful in motivating others to see how their contributions fit into the bigger picture.
The Achiever’s blindspot
When sharing feedback, don’t forget to take a step back and know that feedback is a two-way process and between two people! Sometimes, you can prioritize the numbers and whether the team is surpassing goals, forgetting that behind each team are unique individuals, each with their own stories and context.
Like analyzers, remember that feedback is sometimes most effective when it’s a co-creative process. Always share the airtime in feedback sessions and check in on the other person – you want to make them feel comfortable. Don’t forget to reinforce the message that you’re sharing feedback because you want the individual (in addition to the team) to succeed. Try adding some boosters or looping in some things in which the other person has done well!
Connectors 🤝
Oh hi – if you’re in this section, we have this in common. I’m a connector too (shocking…)! Us connectors are people first and look at most things through a humanistic lens, which sometimes is a great asset. Feedback, can be scary and sometimes have a bad reputation.
Think back…the last time your manager needed to have a “chat”, even if it was positive, did your brain immediately go to a dark place? A connector’s power is to be relatable and empathetic to counteract some of those negative emotions often associated with feedback.
- You have a focus on the individual, knowing each person’s journeys, skills, and intentions are unique. You may find relationships between someone’s behaviours and their needs, feelings, aspirations and motivations! Context matters, after all!
- Feedback sessions easily resemble a conversation. You are likely to share the airtime so that you can also listen and co-create solutions together.
- You see how being someone’s cheerleader is what people need sometimes to inspire change.
Things to watch out for
Connectors can sometimes fear and therefore delay sharing negative comments or feedback. How would the other person feel if I break their bubble? Yup, it’s tough. Remember that the best feedback is often ones that consistent and timely though. If you really want the other person to succeed, sometimes, it means being more upfront and candid than you’re used to.
Remember that the other person’s motivations and intentions, can’t account for everything and to take a step back and also look at the end results. Consider preparing a list of metrics and examples you definitely want to cover. To help facilitate information, brainstorm some stronger words (e.g. I recommend, try this), and help create an action plan with them.
Energizers 💥
I love working with energizers! People with this feedback style have a vision and endless enthusiasm for what it looks like and what it means for everyone on the team. You might have an innate ability to consistently redirect everyone’s attention and tie every story back to your mission or common goal.
- You celebrate wins that the team accomplished and enjoy doing so. Not to mention, the motivation you foster by conceptually tying each team back to your vision is one of your best assets!
- Sometimes, you enjoy speaking to groups of people instead of individuals about your progress. You tend to provide a lot of feedback in different channels, whether that’s in departmental meetings, reminding everyone of their core objectives 1-on-1, or painting a vivid picture of the future in the boardroom.
- You’re someone that will give feedback in the heat of the moment – quick 5 minute chats about your thoughts might be your thing!
Things to watch out for
With feedback, more isn’t always more! You might sometimes lack specificity when it comes to what you want the listener to take away. Try coming up with specific steps or tasks to not only focus on the big picture but the granular details too.
And while spontaneous feedback is great, don’t forget dedicated time to chat and review the output and feelings of those around you, as individuals, is important too! Motivating a crowd and those within it requires different tools and methods!
Wrapping it Up
So there you have it, 4 different feedback styles across two dimensions! What did you get? How do you relate to them? Leave them in the comments below!
Related Resources
- Learn about our Effective Feedback Workshop
- Get coaching on your career communications
- Three resources on networking for introverts!
- Why the imposter syndrome threatens workplace advancement
