Consulting Approach
Xelay Foundation teaches and trains partner organizations on the consulting approach to equip their teams with powerful tools for decision making and program implementation. From white papers to multi-day training events, the Foundation supports the wider community by empowering community organizations to deliver extraordinary results with current resources.
Xelay views feedback as a critical tool for professional development and performance improvement. Since Xelay team members are constantly being reminded of how they could be performing better, the developmental opportunities can feel overwhelmingly negative. However, it’s important to remember that feedback means that a manager cares enough about the team member to want to invest time to develop them. The managers at Xelay value the hard work of their team members but oftentimes will not acknowledge their appreciation as daily excellence is an expectation. Team members that are expected to develop continuously need constructive feedback to ensure growth.
Once Is a Mistake, Twice Is a Choice, Three Times Is a Habit
In order to avoid making the same mistakes over and over, Xelay encourages a method of synthesizing, logging, and reflecting. After receiving feedback from a mistake for the first time, synthesize this feedback into key takeaways that can be applied to other assignments. Secondly, log this feedback with tracking sheets of four columns: topic, feedback, reviewer, and date of feedback. Finally, reflect on this feedback and make sure to consistently refer back to it in order to grow as a team member and understand and remember past mistakes to avoid repeating them in the future.
Demonstrating Feedback Implementation
At Xelay, we believe that demonstrating feedback implementation is crucial to credibility and efficiency in the workplace. Good communication between sender and receiver creates trust. Additionally, optimal feedback implementation will eliminate unnecessary rounds of iterations. Xelayers utilize verbatim feedback, indicating words like “done”, written summaries, and visuals like screenshots and outlines to demonstrate our understanding of feedback.
Levels of Maturity in Receiving Feedback
At Xelay, we believe that feedback is a privilege that should never be taken personally. Mentors give feedback when they want the receiver to grow and learn. There are four levels of maturity when it comes to feedback. The least mature level is a team member who is defensive and in denial of feedback. Level two is someone who accepts the feedback, but doesn’t confirm understanding or share it with others. The third level describes one who shares feedback with other peers to ensure they don’t make the same mistakes. People at level four enthusiastically embrace the feedback and share their learning to help the entire organization excel.
Impact of Mentor-Mentee Programs
Here at Xelay Foundation, we encourage our mentors and mentees to build a strong relationship in order to learn from each other. It’s extremely important for mentees to be able to turn to their advisor when they need help or advice. This way, we can advance as a group and avoid making the same mistakes multiple times.
In order to be a successful and helpful consultant to clients, Xelayers must take on the role of a trusted advisor. This role is unique in that we are not selling anything to the consumer, but rather working with them to guide their ideal plan to become a better business. Creating trust and alliance with clients is a difficult skill, however, we understand the importance of this role and continue to mold our team members to recognize it as well.
