Skip to main content

    Interactive assessment

    Feedback Fitness Assessment

    Assess how well you seek, receive, and give feedback, the three capabilities that separate high performers from the merely competent.

    Stone and Heen's (2014) research found that the ability to receive feedback effectively, without defensiveness or dismissiveness, is one of the strongest predictors of both individual growth and organisational learning. This assessment covers all three feedback capabilities: how proactively you seek it, how openly you receive it, and how skilfully you give it. Together, these determine your 'feedback fitness', your capacity to use feedback as a genuine development tool.

    Questions or items
    15 questions or items
    Completion time
    Around 8 minutes
    Dimensions
    Seeking Feedback, Receiving Feedback, Giving Feedback
    What you receive
    Personalised results with result bands, section scores and development guidance.

    What it covers

    • Seeking Feedback
    • Receiving Feedback
    • Giving Feedback

    Rate each statement from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree). Be honest, the value of this assessment depends entirely on accurate self-reflection.

    Results: Personalised results with result bands, section scores and development guidance.

    How this interactive diagnostic works

    Read what it covers here first. Nothing is saved or sent until you continue. Your result is calculated once every required item is answered.

    If it asks for your first name and work email, you enter them in the diagnostic itself. This page sends nothing.

    Statements in this diagnostic

    Statements are grouped by section. Answer each one for the situation named in the instructions, using the scale shown.

    Seeking Feedback

    How proactively you seek honest input on your performance, impact, and development, rather than waiting for it to come to you.

    1. I regularly ask for specific feedback on my work, not just general impressions
    2. I seek feedback from people who are likely to challenge me, not just those who will validate me
    3. When a project or interaction goes badly, I actively explore what I could have done differently
    4. I make it easy for others to give me honest feedback by asking specific questions and creating a safe environment
    5. I seek feedback on the specific capabilities I am trying to develop, not just on the work I have already done

    Receiving Feedback

    Your ability to hear feedback without defensiveness, to separate the signal from the noise, and to extract what is genuinely useful (Stone & Heen, 2014).

    1. When I receive critical feedback, my first response is to listen and understand, not to defend or explain
    2. I can receive negative feedback without it destabilising my confidence or sense of self-worth
    3. I can separate the quality of feedback from how it was delivered, I can find the useful content even in poorly framed feedback
    4. After receiving feedback, I reflect on it before deciding whether to act on it, I neither dismiss it nor accept it uncritically
    5. I thank people for honest feedback, even when it is uncomfortable, I make it easy for them to give it again

    Giving Feedback

    Your skill in delivering feedback that is honest, specific, and genuinely useful, in a way the recipient can actually hear and act on.

    1. I give specific, behavioural feedback rather than vague impressions or personality judgements
    2. I give feedback in a timely way, close to the event, rather than saving it for formal review processes
    3. I give honest critical feedback even when it is uncomfortable, because I believe it serves the person's development
    4. I frame feedback in terms of impact, what I observed and how it affected outcomes or relationships, rather than as personal criticism
    5. I create conditions for the feedback conversation, the right time, place, and framing, rather than delivering it opportunistically

    How the result is read

    Your answers are totalled for each section and overall. Each total falls into one of the bands below.

    • Developing, 15 to 33: Significant development opportunity across your feedback capabilities. Feedback fitness is learnable, start with Receiving Feedback, which is the foundation. Until you can receive feedback without defensiveness, you can't fully benefit from seeking it or giving it to others.
    • Emerging, 34 to 51: You have some feedback capability with clear development gaps. Most people at this level have good intentions around feedback but haven't developed the specific skills and habits that make it work consistently. Focus on your lowest-scoring dimension.
    • Capable, 52 to 65: Solid feedback fitness. You use feedback as a genuine development tool, more consistently than most. The opportunity is to move from capable to excellent, particularly in the dimension where you scored lowest.
    • Excellent, 66 to 75: You demonstrate exceptional feedback fitness. You create a feedback-rich environment that accelerates learning for everyone around you. Focus on developing others to the same standard and creating structural opportunities for feedback in your team.

    Sources named in this diagnostic

    • Dweck, C.S. (2006) Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Random House.
    • Edmondson, A.C. (2018) The Fearless Organization. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
    • Scott, K. (2017) Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity. New York: St. Martin's Press.
    • Stone, D. and Heen, S. (2014) Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well. New York: Viking.

    Where to take the next step

    Our management development programmes build practical skills, confidence and capability for managers and leaders.

    Explore Management Development

    Frequently asked questions

    What does the Feedback Fitness Assessment measure?

    Stone and Heen's (2014) research found that the ability to receive feedback effectively, without defensiveness or dismissiveness, is one of the strongest predictors of both individual growth and organisational learning. This assessment covers all three feedback capabilities: how proactively you seek it, how openly you receive it, and how skilfully you give it. Together, these determine your 'feedback fitness', your capacity to use feedback as a genuine development tool.

    How many questions are in the Feedback Fitness Assessment?

    It contains 15 questions grouped into 3 dimensions: Seeking Feedback, Receiving Feedback, Giving Feedback.

    How is the Feedback Fitness Assessment scored?

    Responses are totalled within each section and across the diagnostic, and each total falls into a result band.

    What happens after I complete the Feedback Fitness Assessment?

    Once the required items are answered, you enter your first name and email to see your results: an overall interpretation, section scores and development guidance.

    More to explore