I am flabbergasted when people flatter me with endorsements. It's great to flick through my social media accounts and email and uncover people who have identified and highlighted my talents, skills, experience etc!

Hold on, this is not about me - this message is about you, the Leader - today's consideration!

I'm surprised for three reasons:

the fact they took time out to actually think of me and say "yes" Louise does that well
that people actually think I am good at something which I never considered was in my suite of offerings, and
how would these people actually know that I do or even know how I perform these activities.

Now, don't get me wrong - I am very thankful and grateful for your feedback - well, to those that have endorsed me!

What I want to highlight is that we are generally vague in our feedback. When asked "what did you think of my presentation?" the often chorus of feedback is "great" or "really well". It's like the response to "How are you?" - the chorus is "not bad" or "good". (Well, in Australia it is.)

Today, I'd like to challenge you to be more specific with your responses and in particular, your feedback. Be genuine and identify what is good or requires attention/improvement. Until we know what it is that can be improved or made more robust, we'll never know!

Today, somewhere in the world a great leader will say "I really enjoyed your story at the beginning of today's meeting - you engaged with everyone in the room." Or, "when you click your pen during the meeting it distracts me and I notice it distracts others ...".

Keep endorsing people in our very 'social' world and go beyond the 'tick of approval' and share a message about that person i.e. a recommendation in LinkedIn is a space which encourages this activity.

Thank you for reading my whole blog! Now, go on and give someone specific feedback.