What’s in your feedback folder?

The super quick read

Keep a simple note for feedback. Paste in positive words about you from fellow community members. It matters when you’re having a tough time. It creates evidence for important career conversations. It encourages a positive feedback sharing habit.

The main read

“Simon has this calm, grounded energy that just makes you feel better. If you’re ever confused, anxious, or just overthinking things; he’s one of the best people to talk to. He listens, he understands, and he somehow makes you walk away feeling lighter.”

Those kind words sit comfortably in my feedback folder, an Apple Notes file that spends its time collecting quotes via my iPhone and Mac devices.

Although it was said in public on LinkedIn, it feels uncomfortable to post that feedback here. However, I share it to illustrate a point and I can’t begin to describe how important it is to document feedback.

I share because I encourage you to do the same: Always document the positive feedback you receive from fellow community members.

Why it matters? Life can be tough, complicated, busy and sometimes we can just feel shit about things. While I tend to have a positive outlook on life, I’m often filled with doubt and when I least expect it, I feel meh and overwhelmed. It’s a conscious effort to remind myself that I can and do have a positive impact on people’s lives.

Ego better than this. Is this all rooted in insecurity? Yep, absolutely. Do I need validation from fellow humans? Nope, I shouldn’t. But it sure feels good to know you’ve made a positive difference! This self care strategy is just one way of staying motivated to participate in a tech community. Yet to be successful in a tech community, it can’t all be about self.

Best intentions. Receiving positive feedback encourages us to be more intentional with how we show up and more intentional with how we share positive words with each other. It’s interesting to observe how people share feedback. Every way we choose to give feedback can spark the next act of positive recognition. When one person takes time to appreciate a fellow community member, it often motivates others to do the same.

Career growth. Beyond a reminder that we can all be good humans, a positive feedback folder provides direct evidence to share with a manager during a 1-2-1 or performance review. Such evidence also supports a case for promotion or a new opportunity.

Pattern spotting. Over time we can spot patterns in the feedback. Certain types of behaviour that are often called out might be an opportunity to wonder what else we want to be seen doing or be known for.

Try this simple community confidence exercise

• Create a new note on your favourite note taking tool.
• Revisit previous messages, forum posts, comments, social platform posts etc. Look for positive things said about you.
• Add three entries. Just paste them in unedited. Date stamp and document who it was from.
• Add a new entry as soon as you receive or spot some positive feedback about yourself.
• Keep adding new entries as they appear on your radar.
• Re-read the entire note at the end of each month.
• Soak up the good vibes.

Bonus task

• Share positive feedback with a fellow community member.
• Repeat this three times a week.

Another Option

You could also incorporate your feedback folder into a brag document. A tool to document your achievements. So you could document quotes from the community and personal reflections in one.

Julia Evans provides reasons to keep a brag document and, to get started, Cassandra H. Leung shares a handy brag board template.

Go build your community confidence. You’ve got this!