This Advice Will Make You More Coachable and More Hireable

Like the best athletes in the world, you have to be coachable in order to be successful.

You might be the most skilled or experienced in your field, but realizing you can always be better, and letting others give you guidance, insight, and suggestions is more valuable to an employer than just a sparkling resume.

It’s up to you to indicate to your boss and to others you are coachable. The more often you show you are willing to hear feedback and act on it, the more likely other people will be to offer assistance.

The following tips are a few ways to become more coachable, increasing your value to every employer in your field.

Invite feedback

Show your supervisor and co-workers that you actually value their feedback and assistance. It’s also important to let them know when their input would be most beneficial. For instance, getting feedback in the middle of a big, stressful project might be harder for you to process compared to after the project has been completed.

Show your appreciation

Whenever you receive feedback or assistance, thank the person for their input, even if you don’t completely agree with what is said.

If the feedback is particularly harsh and you feel the need to respond, simply say you’ve put a lot of effort into your work and it’s a bit difficult to take that kind of criticism right now. But, then agree that things may not have gone perfectly, and say you’ll take the feedback into consideration.

Remember that people aren’t perfect

While hearing feedback is important to personal growth, it’s also important to remember you should take everything you hear with a grain of salt, including both positive and negative feedback.

Often, people don’t have the time to word their feedback precisely or in a way that doesn’t give the wrong impression. Wording something precisely so it has the greatest constructive effect takes time and at some point, precision must be sacrificed for urgency.

Furthermore, supervisors and co-workers have their own problems to worry about. The next time you get some feedback you don’t like, consider the other person’s workload, responsibilities and stresses. Taking a step back may allow you to understand your supervisor or co-worker made a good effort to give you feedback considering they have issues of their own.

Consider their point-of-view

If you’re wondering about how seriously to take a particular suggestion or piece of advice, think about what kinds of habits or action might cause you to give someone else feedback. Then think about these behaviors based on what you know about yourself and the person providing the feedback.

At Career Concepts, we love both coachable workers and professional who are striving to be more open to constructive feedback. If you’re looking for a new job, contact us today or check out what career opportunities we currently have in store.