Marshall Goldsmith is one of my favorite authors and leadership gurus.  I’ve shared his “feedforward”  concept with leaders for years and recently wrote about the idea in this article.

Feedfoward means giving people suggestions in advance about how to behave rather than waiting for them to fail and beating them up afterwards.  Anyone can give feedforward when they have an idea that may help someone else succeed.  For example, years ago my husband was about to present to his company’s executive leadership team for the first time. His boss gave him great feed-forward about how to dress, when to speak, how much detail to go into, etc.

While I usually talk about giving feedforward, Goldsmith also makes the great point that we can and should ask for feedforward.  If you have a behavior you want to change, try asking others for ideas and suggestions about how to succeed.   Most people who try this technique find that it is fun and they get great ideas.

Interested in learning and trying feedforward for yourself?  Check out this video from Goldsmith: