March 24, 2026 • 9 mins
In this episode, I discuss how to give and receive constructive feedback effectively, especially in technical and trades environments. I share practical examples, personal mentoring stories, and tips for resourcefulness and trust-building in feedback processes.
If you are a tradeswoman or tradesperson who would like to feel less anxious and more confident, don't hesitate to contact me through my website, Louiseazzopardi.com, and we can schedule a coaching consultation!
Shewear proudly supports this episode. She Wear safety work boots that women have designed to fit and look good on women. Not only do they have specially designed work boots for women, but they also have a wide range of women's work wear from various brands in one spot!
Get shopping at http://www.shewear.com.au
key topics
- The importance of specific, relevant, and actionable feedback
- How to handle vague or unhelpful feedback from managers
- The role of trusted technical allies in learning
- Strategies for resourcefulness when feedback is unreliable
- The impact of feedback on apprentices' growth and confidence
keywords
constructive feedback, trades, mentoring, technical skills, resourcefulness, trust, learning, apprenticeships, workplace communication
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to the building confidence podcast where I host the Weasel's a party show.
What I've learned through the years through the tears.
So you don't have to, this is episode 143 and we're going to be talking about gettingconstructive and useful feedback.
All right.
This episode is proudly supported by she wear.
All right.
So what I mean by
(00:22):
constructive and useful feedback is feedback that is relevant, specific and actionable.
For example, feedback like last week you did not do a good job is not specific oractionable.
Something like yesterday when we were installing the pistons and you were putting thepiston rings in the right position and I needed to change them up on the engine.
Next time I need you to put them 120 degrees apart.
(00:44):
Remind me to show you next time.
Is a lot better feedback.
When we receive vague feedback, can sometimes leave us questioning absolutely everythingbecause we don't know what we did right or wrong or what we need to improve on.
The purpose of getting constructive feedback is that people with more experience lookingfrom the outside in often see things that we don't when we are doing something.
(01:08):
Sometimes our brain literally does not have the information to come up with a differentway or to know a specific detail.
Some of that comes with time and practice.
Some of that comes from formal learning.
Some comes from knowledge passed down while we're actually doing the job and some comesafter the fact.
The benefit of being able to get constructive feedback is that no matter who is giving youthe feedback, you will be able to get what you need from it no matter what the ability of
(01:34):
the person giving it to you is.
This will help you grow not only in your apprenticeship but beyond as we will never knowanything and technology is always changing and growing.
I've been in a few of these situations before, but I really wanted to share with yousomething that happened with a tradeswoman that I was mentoring.
She was a second year apprentice and was doing really well.
(01:55):
And then her manager changed and all of a sudden, apparently she was not doing well.
Her new manager was telling her things like, you're not where you're supposed to be.
You're at the level of a first year.
You never get things right.
What had changed between the managers?
The original manager was always giving her feedback.
that was specific.
(02:16):
Things like good job on that repair, next time have your wiring a bit neater or hey youdidn't get this right we need to redo it.
I'll show you the correct way.
He had the skill to give specific relevant and actionable feedback to help her growwithout putting her down along the way.
Her new manager did not have that skill.
We put in a plan to guide him to give her that information.
(02:39):
Whenever he asked her or whenever he said to her you never get things right.
Her response was, what didn't I get right on that job specifically?
This is prompting him to give her some more detail that she could actually use.
Unfortunately, his response was often, I don't have time to tell you, you can work it out.
(03:01):
Now as a second year, we have some information, but we don't have all the information.
And the information we don't have, we're relying on our leaders to give it to us.
Luckily, she had a trusted technical ally.
someone who was qualified with some years experience, who she believed had her bestinterests in mind.
When she received some of this vague feedback from her manager, she would take it to hertrusted technical ally.
(03:26):
And they debriefed about past jobs to see if there was anything specific that she couldtake on.
Sometimes there was, and she would receive guidance from her ally.
And sometimes they would come to the conclusion that the manager was in a bad mood andgoing on a rampage to bring everyone down.
and there actually wasn't anything valid in his comments.
(03:46):
Now, another thing he would tell her to do was to smile more.
Now this is where the relevant part to the feedback comes in.
Now, if you're doing a family photo shoot and the feedback from the photographer is tosmile more, that would be relevant.
When you are fixing electrical faults in a factory, not so much.
(04:06):
When we are getting feedback or asking for feedback, we want it to be specific.
about a specific task or a specific part of the task.
We want to make sure it is actionable.
We either have the information we need to improve or we know where to get thatinformation.
We also want to trust the person giving us the information, has our best interests inmind, which might naturally be our leader or the trader we're partnered with.
(04:32):
But if they are not trustworthy or can't give us the information we need, then we need tofind a trusted technical ally.
Awesome.
Okay, cool.
So if anyone who listens regularly, you might've noticed that that was a little bitdifferent.
This was scripted.
This is part of a workshop that I'm running.
And when I run workshops, I like to script them.
So I make sure I get all of the points out whether or not I actually step like stick tothe script when I'm actually doing it is a different story.
(04:59):
But anyway, so that was that running this in a workshop on how for new people coming intothe industry on how to learn things like
What do need to know when you're learning things?
I talk about the four levels of learning, which I have an episode on already, and then themagic of making mistakes, which I talk about a lot and I've got a full episode on that.
(05:21):
And then getting constructive and useful feedback is the third piece that I'm sharing uhin this workshop.
ah In that sense as well, if anyone's workplace or anyone knows of a business or anorganization wanting to support their people.
uh with the tools that I share on this podcast or similar, please reach out to me.
I'd love to run some more workshops to get these tools out to more people.
(05:46):
If you've made it this far in the podcast, I'm assuming you're one of the 30 people wholisten regularly.
So I really appreciate you um for that.
yeah, the scripted content, feel free to give me feedback on scripted versus unscripted.
Unscripted allows me to just kind of go with the flow and it really helps me put outregular content because it doesn't take as long.
(06:06):
But also I feel like sometimes like my rambles have a lot of goodness in them.
Sometimes they're just rambles.
But yes, so that was that content.
But yes, getting feedback.
We can't leave ourselves open to the...
to how good or not good other people are at their jobs.
(06:28):
Depending on the situation you're in and if you're in a situation with some people thataren't so great, having the thought that other people are unreliable can really help us
become resourceful.
It keeps us out of that victim mentality.
Especially when shit is going wrong and you're like, my god, supervisor's letting me down,this is letting me down, my trainer's letting me down.
(06:50):
Like, if you just.
Other people are unreliable.
I need to rely on myself.
I need to solve this for myself.
um Can get us moving forward so that we don't get left behind in these situations that wealways get what we came for in that.
And in the feedback space we can ask for it and we can also look for feedback from otherpeople around us if the person who's supposed to be giving us the feedback is not good at
(07:14):
giving us the feedback.
Yes, I really love not that I don't love that.
my one of my coaching goals was in the scenario but I actually was mentoring her I've beenmentoring her for about three almost three and a half years now since the beginning of her
apprenticeship her workplace put her through the mentoring with me and it's been reallygreat to watch her go and just to support her through that situation where it wasn't her
(07:41):
like at the beginning when this her manager changed she's like I don't know what I'm doingwrong like
what's happening and we knuckled it down and you know with the supervisor changing, hedidn't have the skill.
He didn't have the skill to give her the feedback.
And she was lucky enough to organically have a trusted technical ally and we really reliedon him for that technical information.
(08:06):
I don't really mentor technically in the space.
Like my trade is heavy diesel so I do a little bit of kind of, I can embed tutoring kindof in my coaching and mentoring if you're working with me.
uh But yes, I know a little bit about electrical, this kind of automotive electrical, buthaving that trusted technical ally there for her that she could bounce off was really,
(08:26):
really valuable for her in that situation and that learning of that situation as well.
Alright, well like always, you're always welcome to reach out to me for one-on-onecoaching and support if that's what works for you and if you are in the position where
you're a part of an organization or a business that wants to get these tools out to theirtradeswomen and their people.
feel free to reach out to me, I'd love to run a workshop for your people as well.
(08:47):
um In saying that, going back to the sponsor, the sponsor of this podcast is Shewear.
Shewear make women's workwear, women's boots um and other shoes that are amazing.
I've been wearing them for pretty much 10 years now and now most of my shoewear, like mostof my footwear is Shewear.
They also have a collection of other brands workwear on their site, so it's kind of like aone stop lady tradie shop.
(09:13):
uh They also got stuff for nurses as well and healthcare workers, which is pretty cool.
So that's a one-stop shop there.
So if you are entering into the trades and you're looking at, you know, what's available,I would recommend going there.
uh If you need some new work where I would also recommend going there, there's a link toit in the description of the podcast as well.
And like always, if you don't believe in yourself right now, please borrow my belief inyou.
(09:38):
I know you can do whatever you put your mind to.
You might need to have a nap or a snack first.
But I know you can do it.
And I will see you next week.
Welcome back to the building confidence podcast where I host the Weasel's a party show.
What I've learned through the years through the tears.
So you don't have to, this is episode 143 and we're going to be talking about gettingconstructive and useful feedback.
All right.
This episode is proudly supported by she wear.
All right.
So what I mean by
(00:22):
constructive and useful feedback is feedback that is relevant, specific and actionable.
For example, feedback like last week you did not do a good job is not specific oractionable.
Something like yesterday when we were installing the pistons and you were putting thepiston rings in the right position and I needed to change them up on the engine.
Next time I need you to put them 120 degrees apart.
(00:44):
Remind me to show you next time.
Is a lot better feedback.
When we receive vague feedback, can sometimes leave us questioning absolutely everythingbecause we don't know what we did right or wrong or what we need to improve on.
The purpose of getting constructive feedback is that people with more experience lookingfrom the outside in often see things that we don't when we are doing something.
(01:08):
Sometimes our brain literally does not have the information to come up with a differentway or to know a specific detail.
Some of that comes with time and practice.
Some of that comes from formal learning.
Some comes from knowledge passed down while we're actually doing the job and some comesafter the fact.
The benefit of being able to get constructive feedback is that no matter who is giving youthe feedback, you will be able to get what you need from it no matter what the ability of
(01:34):
the person giving it to you is.
This will help you grow not only in your apprenticeship but beyond as we will never knowanything and technology is always changing and growing.
I've been in a few of these situations before, but I really wanted to share with yousomething that happened with a tradeswoman that I was mentoring.
She was a second year apprentice and was doing really well.
(01:55):
And then her manager changed and all of a sudden, apparently she was not doing well.
Her new manager was telling her things like, you're not where you're supposed to be.
You're at the level of a first year.
You never get things right.
What had changed between the managers?
The original manager was always giving her feedback.
that was specific.
(02:16):
Things like good job on that repair, next time have your wiring a bit neater or hey youdidn't get this right we need to redo it.
I'll show you the correct way.
He had the skill to give specific relevant and actionable feedback to help her growwithout putting her down along the way.
Her new manager did not have that skill.
We put in a plan to guide him to give her that information.
(02:39):
Whenever he asked her or whenever he said to her you never get things right.
Her response was, what didn't I get right on that job specifically?
This is prompting him to give her some more detail that she could actually use.
Unfortunately, his response was often, I don't have time to tell you, you can work it out.
(03:01):
Now as a second year, we have some information, but we don't have all the information.
And the information we don't have, we're relying on our leaders to give it to us.
Luckily, she had a trusted technical ally.
someone who was qualified with some years experience, who she believed had her bestinterests in mind.
When she received some of this vague feedback from her manager, she would take it to hertrusted technical ally.
(03:26):
And they debriefed about past jobs to see if there was anything specific that she couldtake on.
Sometimes there was, and she would receive guidance from her ally.
And sometimes they would come to the conclusion that the manager was in a bad mood andgoing on a rampage to bring everyone down.
and there actually wasn't anything valid in his comments.
(03:46):
Now, another thing he would tell her to do was to smile more.
Now this is where the relevant part to the feedback comes in.
Now, if you're doing a family photo shoot and the feedback from the photographer is tosmile more, that would be relevant.
When you are fixing electrical faults in a factory, not so much.
(04:06):
When we are getting feedback or asking for feedback, we want it to be specific.
about a specific task or a specific part of the task.
We want to make sure it is actionable.
We either have the information we need to improve or we know where to get thatinformation.
We also want to trust the person giving us the information, has our best interests inmind, which might naturally be our leader or the trader we're partnered with.
(04:32):
But if they are not trustworthy or can't give us the information we need, then we need tofind a trusted technical ally.
Awesome.
Okay, cool.
So if anyone who listens regularly, you might've noticed that that was a little bitdifferent.
This was scripted.
This is part of a workshop that I'm running.
And when I run workshops, I like to script them.
So I make sure I get all of the points out whether or not I actually step like stick tothe script when I'm actually doing it is a different story.
(04:59):
But anyway, so that was that running this in a workshop on how for new people coming intothe industry on how to learn things like
What do need to know when you're learning things?
I talk about the four levels of learning, which I have an episode on already, and then themagic of making mistakes, which I talk about a lot and I've got a full episode on that.
(05:21):
And then getting constructive and useful feedback is the third piece that I'm sharing uhin this workshop.
ah In that sense as well, if anyone's workplace or anyone knows of a business or anorganization wanting to support their people.
uh with the tools that I share on this podcast or similar, please reach out to me.
I'd love to run some more workshops to get these tools out to more people.
(05:46):
If you've made it this far in the podcast, I'm assuming you're one of the 30 people wholisten regularly.
So I really appreciate you um for that.
yeah, the scripted content, feel free to give me feedback on scripted versus unscripted.
Unscripted allows me to just kind of go with the flow and it really helps me put outregular content because it doesn't take as long.
(06:06):
But also I feel like sometimes like my rambles have a lot of goodness in them.
Sometimes they're just rambles.
But yes, so that was that content.
But yes, getting feedback.
We can't leave ourselves open to the...
to how good or not good other people are at their jobs.
(06:28):
Depending on the situation you're in and if you're in a situation with some people thataren't so great, having the thought that other people are unreliable can really help us
become resourceful.
It keeps us out of that victim mentality.
Especially when shit is going wrong and you're like, my god, supervisor's letting me down,this is letting me down, my trainer's letting me down.
(06:50):
Like, if you just.
Other people are unreliable.
I need to rely on myself.
I need to solve this for myself.
um Can get us moving forward so that we don't get left behind in these situations that wealways get what we came for in that.
And in the feedback space we can ask for it and we can also look for feedback from otherpeople around us if the person who's supposed to be giving us the feedback is not good at
(07:14):
giving us the feedback.
Yes, I really love not that I don't love that.
my one of my coaching goals was in the scenario but I actually was mentoring her I've beenmentoring her for about three almost three and a half years now since the beginning of her
apprenticeship her workplace put her through the mentoring with me and it's been reallygreat to watch her go and just to support her through that situation where it wasn't her
(07:41):
like at the beginning when this her manager changed she's like I don't know what I'm doingwrong like
what's happening and we knuckled it down and you know with the supervisor changing, hedidn't have the skill.
He didn't have the skill to give her the feedback.
And she was lucky enough to organically have a trusted technical ally and we really reliedon him for that technical information.
(08:06):
I don't really mentor technically in the space.
Like my trade is heavy diesel so I do a little bit of kind of, I can embed tutoring kindof in my coaching and mentoring if you're working with me.
uh But yes, I know a little bit about electrical, this kind of automotive electrical, buthaving that trusted technical ally there for her that she could bounce off was really,
(08:26):
really valuable for her in that situation and that learning of that situation as well.
Alright, well like always, you're always welcome to reach out to me for one-on-onecoaching and support if that's what works for you and if you are in the position where
you're a part of an organization or a business that wants to get these tools out to theirtradeswomen and their people.
feel free to reach out to me, I'd love to run a workshop for your people as well.
(08:47):
um In saying that, going back to the sponsor, the sponsor of this podcast is Shewear.
Shewear make women's workwear, women's boots um and other shoes that are amazing.
I've been wearing them for pretty much 10 years now and now most of my shoewear, like mostof my footwear is Shewear.
They also have a collection of other brands workwear on their site, so it's kind of like aone stop lady tradie shop.
(09:13):
uh They also got stuff for nurses as well and healthcare workers, which is pretty cool.
So that's a one-stop shop there.
So if you are entering into the trades and you're looking at, you know, what's available,I would recommend going there.
uh If you need some new work where I would also recommend going there, there's a link toit in the description of the podcast as well.
And like always, if you don't believe in yourself right now, please borrow my belief inyou.
(09:38):
I know you can do whatever you put your mind to.
You might need to have a nap or a snack first.
But I know you can do it.
And I will see you next week.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Betrayal Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal Team by emailing them at betrayalpod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.