The F Word...

FEEDBACK

If you're someone who says, "I love feedback", I honestly can't believe you. Giving and receiving feedback can be an uncomfortable situation. When giving feedback, we have to consider the right time, what the impact/outcome of it would be, and how strong the relationship with the other person is. 

​For me, giving feedback is WAY easier than receiving it.  I don't know about you, but it's way easier for me to come up with a 1,000 ways someone can be doing something different versus hearing 1,000 I could change. However, recently I read a quote that has helped the way I view receiving feedback and has honestly made the process much easier on my own self-esteem. 

The quote is the following: Who you are and what you do are separate from each other. 

This is how I interpret this thought... 

Who I am is determined by my values, my work ethic, and my personality. I, Margarita, am loyal, trusting, honest, straightforward and caring person. I am an extremely dedicated and passionate worker, and am emotional and introspective. 

What I do is my profession: I lead students, teachers and community members. More specifically, I oversee the Reading and Writing department in my elementary. I appraise teachers and handle their parent discipline concerns. Amongst other tasks that are assigned to me, I believe these are the most important of my list of obligations. Now, while WHO I am clearly plays a role on how I solve and deal with people, it does not mean that a criticism on my work is equal to a criticism of my persona. 

I truly believe that the more we think of our profession as an ever evolving craft we should be open to feedback but never let it define US. Take feedback as someone else's perspective on the work that you do, not as someone's perspective on YOU.