How to Manage Feedback Like An Olympic Athlete

How to Manage Feedback Like An Olympic Athlete

Six strategies to separate critiques aimed to tear you down from guidance meant to build you up.

August 13, 2024

HBR Staff/PeopleImages/MirageC/Getty Images



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  • While I was supporting the USA women’s volleyball team as a performance psychologist during the 2012 London Olympics, Nicole Davis, a key member of the team, opened up about the relentless feedback system that governed her every move as an Olympian: “For eight years, every ball I’ve touched or didn’t touch, every decision I made on the court, every hour I showed up in the gym has been observed and statted. It has been transformed into a measure of my progress, and my potential to stand on the Olympic podium.” Her life was a proverbial fishbowl.

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    HBR Learning

    Feedback Essentials Course

    Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning’s online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Feedback Essentials. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.

    Give feedback that your employees can hear and use.

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    • Michael Gervais, PhD, is one of the world’s top high-performance psychologists. His clients include world record holders, Olympians, internationally acclaimed artists and musicians, MVPs from every major sport, and Fortune 100 CEOs. He is also the founder of Finding Mastery, a high-performance psychology consulting agency, the host of the Finding Mastery podcast, and the author of The First Rule of Mastery: Stop Worrying about What People Think of You.



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  • New!


    HBR Learning

    Feedback Essentials Course

    Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning’s online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Feedback Essentials. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.

    Give feedback that your employees can hear and use.

    Read More

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