The role of feedback in people development initiatives

Feedback is a key tool in people development strategies, playing a crucial role in improving performance, job satisfaction, and personal development. In times of rapid change and competition, it is becoming an increasingly valuable tool. To explore the depths of this important aspect of human resource management and how feedback can transform organizational culture, we invited Polina Yordanova - Co-founder and Мanaging Director, Desislava Tsvetanova - Business and People Development Coach and Samuil Botev, Creative Partner from Metamorfica to share.

1. How does effective feedback contribute to people's professional growth and skills development?

For feedback to be effective and contribute positively to people's professional development, it is first necessary to build a culture of trust, acceptance of differences, and management of emotions.
Trust is about being ourselves and being open with our thoughts and ideas without fear of being judged and rejected. In a company that has a culture of trust, there are no mistakes, only opportunities to build on and gain experience.
Effective feedback contributes to one's professional and personal growth as it gives us different perspectives on a situation and behavior, increases awareness of our actions and how our feelings and emotions have influenced our behavior, builds a culture of trust and sharing, helps us become aware and accepting of others' differences and adapt our own behavior and communication style in different situations to the people across from us.
Managing our behavior and reactions allows us to share what we feel and what emotions are going through us, again without fear of judgment, leading to a better understanding of our words and actions. This is actually emotional plasticity - our ability to recognize our emotions, to distance ourselves from them in order to transform them into constructive steps and behaviors.

2. What steps do you recommend for organizations that want to foster a culture where talent actively seeks feedback to help their development?

To foster a culture where people actively give and receive feedback, it is necessary to:

• there should be a focus on clear and structured processes for giving and receiving feedback
• the leadership team to be a role model
• develop soft skills such as active listening and asking impactful open questions
• transparency about feedback and follow-up actions taken

3. How can feedback be effectively integrated into formal learning and development programs to maximize impact on individual progress?

Any development program needs to include the three important elements of acceptance of difference, communication skills, and emotional plasticity. Also to allow sufficient time for the preparation of individual feedback with sufficient detail from which next steps can be directly derived.

4. What do you think the role of feedback will be within people development initiatives, given the changing nature of work and learning?

Feedback and the culture that supports it to be effective contributes to people's enrichment - to see themselves through different perspectives and develop skills that will make them successful in all areas of life, such as understanding, managing, and transforming their emotions into behaviors that are in line with their values and goals, understanding and accepting differences in people, expressing themselves and what they think in a constructive way. Also to listen to others with understanding and acceptance and not to be swayed by emotions when making decisions, but based on information and for the benefit of all involved. Flexibility, commitment, and motivation are key, even in challenging moments.

Creating a culture where people feel free to give and receive feedback will be increasingly important going forward as more people and organizations work from home, depriving them of the opportunities for informal conversations happening with colleagues in office spaces.