Honestly, I’ve been feeling anxious lately. Impostor syndrome is such a buzzword in this space that I’m not even going to use it!
The “post-university void”, as lovingly coined by my friends, is a bizarre place. Even more so when you graduated in a global pandemic.
Rather than being worried I don’t belong, it’s more of a challenge in having faith that I’m carving out the right career path for myself.
Something I’ve just started to build out, which has been really helpful, is a positive feedback document.
By contrast to my last post about rejection, this is a folder literally just of things that have gone well. The planned, the unexpected, the miraculous – it’s all coming together in one place.
Wait, why?
Don’t get me wrong, I love a learning opportunity. Constructive criticism has helped me to grow my skill set, and give me areas to work on.
However, especially amongst junior women, we have a tendency to overlook or discount our successes, and obsess on negative pieces of feedback. It can also be hard to stay grounded on what you’ve achieved, especially when everything moves at pace.
For this reason, in the short term, I’m putting my personal development goals to one side and reflecting upon what has gone well over the past year.
What does that look like?
My “counter-balance” GDoc has five columns – the positive feedback, who it was from, why they said it (aka the context), my thoughts, and when it was.
This helps me to reconnect with what I was doing at the same, remember that relationship, and reflect on how I helped others.
How has that helped?
First of all, it’s a great reminder that when I set my mind to it, I can do some pretty cool things!
It’s also a list of the brilliant people that I have worked with over the past few years, and helps show that I have more support than I think.
On a personal level, it’s helped me to see key themes across my feedback, and to identify my strengths.
For example, some recurring topics include:
- Proactive and self-led approach to learning
- Inclusive and warm leadership
- Going above and beyond for others
Finally, it’s made me prioritise giving others positive feedback when I can, and ensuring that I show my appreciation when I notice someone do a great job.
Altogether, this has helped me to become more confident and self-aware, which puts me in a stronger position to learn from constructive feedback and learn new things.
Is this an exercise you’d try? If you’re curious about doing the same, feel free to drop me a message!
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