Symposium are to provide a new course that offers training on giving and receiving feedback entitled ‘Feedback: Friend or Foe?’.
This one-day course is designed for managers, directors and staff who want to improve their skills in giving and receiving feedback. The course will help delegates look at their personal responses to feedback, build a more open relationship to criticism and find clearer, calmer ways of giving and receiving feedback to others.
Giving feedback is an important task to improve individual and organisation performance. The way that feedback is delivered, rather than the content, can vary the impact, often dramatically. Effective and timely feedback is a critical component of a successful performance management program and should be used when setting performance goals.
Anna Szyperska, logistics manager and lead coordinator for Symposium Training, said:
“For effective feedback you need to carefully monitor the workforce mood and personality. Delivering feedback the right way doesn’t need to be difficult. Our course focuses on this integral part of managing people, allowing managers at all levels to feel confident delivering and receiving feedback and making sure it has the desired effect”
The workshops will be delivered by Symposium trainer and consultant Duncan Lewin. An ex-Deloitte consultant, Duncan specialises in helping people improve their skills in giving and receiving feedback, managing conflict more productively and handling difficult conversations.
A self-confessed former ‘feedback-phobic’, Duncan believes that he was terrible at handling feedback and criticism in his early career. Like many, he had two ways of responding; aggressive and argumentative, or passive and resentful. Neither worked, and both left him stressed. Eventually the stress got too much and he began a deep, personal journey in finding a new way of relating to feedback and conflicting opinions.
The results have been startling; Duncan now actively seeks feedback, feels comfortable with conflict and has learnt how to handle even the most difficult conversations with assertiveness and grace. He works with a range of clients including BT, Accenture, Exxon Mobil and Canary Wharf Group.
The first workshop will be held on September 3 at the Jumeirah Lowndes Hotel in Knightsbridge, London. For more information on this and Symposium’s range of training events, visit the Symposium website here.
