Hello world!

I believe the value of giving and receiving feedback is paramount to becoming a better individual and getting the most out of life. Learning from other peoples input is vital to getting and retaining information and the know how to do things that you will need to achieve success and greatness in your chosen profession.

5 tips that i believe are crucial in giving feed back is that you never make it a personal attack on someone, that you make it constructive criticism so that you don’t put the person down and knock their confidence, that you have information and reasoning with your feedback that makes it easier to understand what you are saying, that your feedback is detailed and relevant to what the persons needs, also that you could always seek another opinion or a backup to  justify your feedback.

5 tips on receiving feedback will be to take every bit of feedback on board even if you do not agree, always ask questions and get advice on your feedback, that if someone giving you feedback does not say it positively you are well within your rights to stop them and say that the cannot talk to you like that, also don’t get negative when someone gives you feedback and you don’t like it and last one would be that you write your feedback you get down and always refer to it.

The most valuable piece of feedback i have received lately would be when i was out hunting with a friend, I was shooting at some wild goats and seemed to be missing a lot or taking more than one shot to kill them. He diagnosed why very quickly and informed me that i was not taking my time and rushing the shot by pulling the trigger instead of squeezing it, so i listened to him and slowed my breathing down and then squeezed the trigger which in return i started killing them with one shot each therefor making it very humane and made me feel a little bit better with the fact i had to kill an animal.

I believe i am very good at receiving good positive feedback that is relevant to my life or the activity that i am taking part in, I always write down good pointers about what i need to do to do what i am doing better, on the other side i am very poor at taking negative feedback, usually getting very confrontational or angry with the person who is giving me a hard time.

Im not to bad at giving feedback to people younger or less aware (experienced) of the skills and knowledge needed to do something, i feel very comfortable sharing my knowledge and putting it to use but i find very hard to speak up and give advice to my elders or people who are well more advanced in an activity, i will on the other hand offer them my opinion and let them choose whether they want it or not.

One of the main difficulties i have had when receiving feedback is that sometimes i have not had faith in some certain peoples feedback and dismissed it very quickly, I now just think their way through to see if i can see it working. When giving feedback i struggle with people ignoring it and carrying on doing it their way then they might fail and i seem to let them know about it rather than talking them through why it failed and letting them learn by their own mistakes, by explaining it and letting them fail they will learn quicker than if i step in and do it for them.

I felt very comfortable in the first mini teach because i was well prepared and ready although my camera didn’t work but in the second mini teach i felt i could have done better because i went in there without revising my notes and just winged it, trying to remember things while being put in front of a class is not easy. Overall i find it easy talking in front of a group as long as i have revised and prepared the session well.

10 learning points i have learnt from this programme are that its not about being the best its about doing your best, by that i mean don’t worry if jo bloggs is better that you as long as you give it your best and enjoy it that’s all that counts.

That safety is paramount to anything in the outdoors especially in tourism because people have in trusted their lives in to your hands so you are responsible if anything goes wrong.

That NZ is an untapped market for tourists coming here to enjoy the freedom that they may only ever get in this nation.

That good planning go hand in hand with having a fun and safe trip which runs smoothly.

That the successful outdoor professional is the average person with precision focus and a wealth of experience.

That those who speak of progress measure it by quantity not quality, by that i mean the big outfits that only concentrate on getting the numbers threw seem to be the only ones who you here from bragging their own chain and advertising lots where as the little outfits that concentrate on quality, you here recommendations from the tourists saying how awesome it was.

That yesterdays failures are today’s opportunities, i used to think that i would never get a second chance but on this course i have realised that there will always be another chance e.g. the rivers will always flow, therefor the chance to kayak will never be lost.

That good contacts are very valuable in the outdoor profession and that favours always get payed back.

The last one is that people who wait for things to happen will get what they want but only the things that are left over from the people that hustle.

I believe an outdoor  professional should be enthusiastic, have a can do attitude, be patient with people, e.g. good people skills, appropriate training and qualifications, so that would be guiding tickets, 1st aid ticket and any other training that might give the person more experience and training, id say outdoor professional means a lot to, at least 5 or 6 years in the profession, you cant be a pro straight away coming off the street.

an outdoor professional should definitely avoid just trying to get rich quick and punch threw the numbers because that takes away the individual quality of the tourists trip therefor making him/her maybe not want to come back, for the outdoor pro not to be all about the Benjamin’s(money) and lastly for them to still be upbeat and able to work with making everyone who has to work with in endure his/her company enjoy it rather than not.