Coaching practices for How to Ask for Candid Feedback

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How to Ask for Candid Feedback, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• I dish out plenty of feedback but I’ve never once asked my team to tell me what I’m getting wrong, and I think that’s exactly why they don’t trust that honesty around here is safe
• I need to ask someone to change something, but the moment I lead with the criticism they go defensive and dig in
• Whenever I ask people how I’m doing I just get vague, polite reassurance
• When I just hand someone my assessment they go passive and defensive, like I’m doing something to them
• Feedback in my one-on-ones only ever flows one way

Practices that may help

1. Ask for feedback before you give it
   Earn the right to challenge by inviting challenge yourself, first.
   Radical Candor, Made Practical
2. Apply reciprocity in feedback conversations
   Offer a genuine concession or acknowledgment of your own role before asking someone to change.
   The Rule of Reciprocity, Made Practical
3. Actively seek feedback on your blind spots
   Ask specifically for what others see that you might not — with enough specificity to get honest answers.
   The Johari Window
4. Ask what the person already knows before offering your assessment
   Ask the person to evaluate their own performance before giving yours.
   The Feedback Sandwich: Why It Doesn’t Work and What to Do Instead
5. Make feedback flow in both directions
   Give timely, specific feedback — and ask for it on your own management.
   Effective One-on-Ones, Made Practical
6. Invite input explicitly and specifically
   Ask for candid input on a specific topic — not "any thoughts?" but "where do you see this plan failing?"
   Psychological Safety in Teams
7. Invite a response after delivering SBI
   Close SBI by asking what the other person makes of it — not with a verdict.
   The SBI Feedback Model, Made Practical
8. Add a forward-looking request to SBI
   Pair the impact statement with a specific, doable request for next time.
   The SBI Feedback Model, Made Practical
9. Ask for ideas about the future, not assessments of the past
   Replace "how did I do?" with "what ideas do you have for how I could do better?"
   Feedforward: Future-Focused Feedback That Actually Changes Behavior
10. Establish shared purpose before delivering critique
    Frame critique as help toward a shared goal, not an evaluation from above.
    The Feedback Sandwich: Why It Doesn’t Work and What to Do Instead

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