We asked these business leaders what role feedback plays in their professional growth, and crucially, how they incorporate it.
In our latest reach out for expert insights, we delved into how feedback is embraced by business leaders for professional growth.
The responses we got emphasise the transformative power of feedback, from building self-awareness and emotional intelligence, to fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
They reveal that effective feedback isn’t just about identifying weaknesses; it’s about creating a dynamic, open environment where growth and innovation thrive.
Dr Mark Seton
Founder: Sense Connexion
Feedback from others, however well expressed, may have little productive value if I am not already attuned and open towards my own inner “feedback” – the kind of visceral, “gut” knowing that leads me, consciously or unconsciously, towards each next action. In fact, sometimes, external feedback might reveal more about the one offering the feedback than what I actually need to feel, think or take action on.
As a person who has learned, from an early age, to please everyone, to put others first, to believe that my feelings and thoughts are probably wrong or dangerously incomplete, the feedback I receive needs to be cross-checked with a growing awareness and confidence in my own emerging sense of who I am becoming as I interact with others. Feedback is just part of an ongoing interweaving of my expression of myself alongside others’ expression of themselves. My professional growth takes me beyond what a typical profession might expect towards what I, as a practitioner, can uniquely offer.
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Georgi Collins
Senior Human Resources Consultant: Y HR Advisory
Learning how to appropriately provide and receive constructive feedback is a crucial element of professional development. Being able to articulate feedback that you are providing to others in a way that helps them to grow is a skill that can come naturally or be built up over time, but the better you are at providing feedback, the better leader you will be.
On the flip side, being able to receive feedback, take it on board, and take the necessary steps to improve or pivot your approach accordingly shows resilience, self-awareness and emotional intelligence, and is crucial to your professional growth. We incorporate feedback firm wide using engagement survey software, one-on-one monthly check ins, and formal six-monthly performance reviews. The focus of these is to both provide and receive feedback constructively to foster individual growth as well as collaboration amongst the team so that everyone has a chance at contributing to and building a business they want to be a part of.
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Pamela Distapan
Content Marketing Manager and Internal Talent Manager: S2M Recruitment
Feedback is the core of how we improve as people but more importantly, develop professionally. As a recruitment agency, it’s applied to our consultants, clients and candidates.
On a personal level, any good manager or mentor should regularly hold catch-ups with individual members of their team, not to micromanage, but to create a personal, open forum to catch up on life and track the progress of personal and professional goals.
With clients and candidates, regular feedback channels help us help our customers better, whether it’s a client giving us feedback on a shortlist, or us coaching a candidate on how to better highlight their achievements to succeed in interviews.
Feedback is essential for us to succeed; without it, we can’t improve as individuals or as an agency, grow our clients’ businesses, or help people find their dream job.
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Hayley Jenkins
Executive Manager People & Culture: Y Careers
As a mum with a young family, and in my field of all things people, feedback is integral to my growth. It helps me identify blind spots and areas for improvement, fostering self-reflection. I create a feedback-friendly environment through inclusive leadership, structured meetings, and regular feedback.
One effective method I use often is the “Stop, Start, Continue” framework, which provides clear, actionable steps. Also understanding people’s differences is key for feedback. For instance, Gen Z employees value regular, specific feedback via digital platforms.
My career began in a shearing shed, moved through IT and real estate, and found its place in HR. Each shift taught me the importance of embracing change and recognising transferable skills. When I receive feedback I might disagree with, I pause and reflect, asking, “What if there is some truth to this?” This mindset shift turns feedback into a growth opportunity, enhancing both my performance and the organisation’s success.
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Max Senica
Training and Recruitment Coordinator, and Director of High-Performance Academy: Sharks Volleyball
Feedback within professional sports is valued as non-negotiable in all stages of athletic development. From my personal experience, feedback was crucial in the beginning of grass-root participation to now in elite performance, where a feedback loop generated by coach and athlete guarantees personal reflection and dialogue on what you’re trying to accomplish in your chosen discipline.
Trust is also imperative in this loop – trusting your coach/mentor and trusting your personal voice while reflecting. I find great value in questioning why I do certain movements in my chosen discipline, why I think a certain way in a big moment, where does that come from? Especially when it’s a positive thought, I ask myself “what did I do to get into that mind-frame,” and “how can I emulate that in the next scenario I face?”
This advanced self-feedback thinking has allowed me to push well beyond the average athlete, while maintaining a positive relationship within myself to accept feedback not as a criticism but as a constant learning opportunity.
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Ben Peacock
National Sales and Distribution Manager: Black Armor Window Films
I think a lot of people in the workforce see feedback as negative rather than seeing it as a coaching tool; I guess this stems from the way that feedback is delivered. In the right format, feedback can be a very powerful tool, not only to improve someone’s skills but to also help them develop in themselves.
In our workplace we like to give feedback daily, whether it’s, “Hey, have you thought about doing it this way,” or “I really like what you have done with that.”
I like to constantly ask my team for feedback on the way I carry out certain activities as I find it opens the lines of feedback between us all – and hey, you never know if there is something that can be done differently or spoken in a different manner to improve what you are trying to achieve.
At the end of the day, “We don’t know what we don’t know.”
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Alexis Nicole Cardillo
CEO and Founder: 17:49 Production
Receiving feedback is crucial to my professional development. Working as mentor in the Emotional Intelligence & Soft Skills Development sector requires the capability to meet the needs of my target audience, and deliver those needs properly during my mentoring classes. If I just follow my impressions, I don’t create space for receiving feedback, or even worse, I don’t even listen to the feedback that I receive. This would make it more challenging to grow in my role and be competitive, considering that in my field what really makes the difference is the empathy and approach to your clients.
For this reason I incorporate a survey at the beginning and the end of my programs, and more than that, I always create a space of discussion with my students to receive live their impressions, and give myself the possibility to evaluate my performances on the spot, and sometimes adapt my lessons directly to the vibes they are experiencing in order to maximise the results.
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