You arrange a mentor meeting to feed back to the social care worker. You have comments to make which include both praise and constructive criticism.
Write notes to prepare for your meeting. In your notes, explain:
- Why is it important for a social care worker to seek feedback on performance?
- The different ways that people may react to receiving constructive feedback.
- Why it is important for a social care worker to use feedback to improve their practice.
Notes in preparation for mentor meeting with John to ensure all major points are covered.
24/11/16 11:00am at Office
Importance of seeking feedback
Explain to John that seeking feedback is a very important part of the role of a Social Care worker because it allows us to improve the service we provide to the clients and and become better at our jobs.
We can get feedback from our peers, managers, subordinates, our clients, our client’s family/friends and other professionals. Similarly, we should give feedback to others in an effort to help them improve. We should also be proactive and ask others for feedback about our work.
As well as helping us with our professional development, feedback can also make us feel appreciated and encourage us to continue doing what we do well or make changes where necessary.
Reactions to receiving feedback
Ideally, John will thank me for the feedback, ask questions, take it on board and continue to improve his work. Hopefully, he will also feel motivated and encouraged by the positives I raise.
However, I should be prepared that he may be offended by the constructive criticism and become defensive, upset or angry. This could result in him trying to avoid or change the subject or blaming other factors for the problems. He could also possibly walk out of our meeting or reluctantly agree to everything I say. Another reaction would be that he becomes anxious and worry about his work.
I must ensure that I keep calm myself and stick to the facts, offer solutions and remind John about the reasons for feedback and its importance. If necessary, I may also need to reassure him.
Using feedback
It is important that social care workers use all the feedback that they receive to continually improve their practice. Feedback can help identify areas where you work well as well as areas where you may need more experience or additional training. Without feedback, a social care worker would be oblivious to any areas of their practice that they could do better or are not performing up to the required standards. By using feedback, not only do you improve your own practice but also the practice of whole service. It also demonstrates that you are willing to listen to others and develop new insights and ways of thinking.