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How FFA Teaches You to Receive Feedback Without Falling Apart

What FFA Actually Teaches (Core Leadership Curriculum)

By FFApresident.com Editorial

Receiving feedback is a skill, and an uncomfortable one. Most people learn it late, usually from a manager. FFA gives members an early start because its structure produces feedback constantly: judges score you, advisors correct you, elections go for or against you and teammates tell you what they saw. This article collects what FFA’s published guidance says about handling all of that.

Employers value the skill. NACE lists, among behaviors under career and self-development, identifying areas for continual growth while pursuing and applying feedback. Advance CTE’s Career Ready Practices describe career-ready people as those who are aware of their areas for improvement and act on feedback to continuously improve. See also NACE’s career readiness competencies.

Ask for It Before the Contest

FFA’s staff advice on preparing for competition builds feedback into practice. Rebecca Carter, a senior manager of awards and recognition programs, suggests practicing as if it were the real event, staying within time limits, removing notes, focusing on posture and seeking feedback. The same advice encourages members to build up teammates and keep a positive tone. Feedback received in rehearsal costs nothing; the same feedback in the contest costs points.

Reframe the Question From the Audience

FFA New Horizons offers a speaking technique that applies to feedback generally. In Improve Your Public Speaking With Improv, the author describes the improv principle “Yes, and…” as accepting a new situation willingly and contributing positively. With that mindset, the article says, audience questions stop being a critique of your presentation and become a chance to explore the subject further and share knowledge. The same piece urges aiming for authenticity rather than perfection.

Applied to feedback, that means treating a judge’s comment as information about the performance, not a verdict on the performer.

Nerves Are Not a Defect

Mark Jewell, a former Minnesota FFA vice president, tells members in 5 Tips for Better Public Speaking that nervousness can be a gift because it shows how much you care. That reframing helps with feedback as well: the sting of a critique is a sign you care about the work, which is the very reason the critique is worth using.

Losing an Election and Trying Again

Few experiences test feedback tolerance like a loss in public. FFA’s 12 tips for becoming a chapter officer end with what to do if you are not elected. One advisor rehearses with students what the next morning will look like so a loss does not become a crisis. Another says a loss does not mean it will always be that way, and that candidates should recognize they did their best and are better prepared for next time. A third advisor says one election does not define you, and notes that adults go through job interviews without getting hired and still have to go to more interviews. A fourth suggests starting smaller, such as committee chair, to collect a new success to discuss at the next interview.

The common thread is a sequence: acknowledge the result, look for what it taught you and choose a smaller next step.

Failing Forward

FFA’s podcast for current and former state officers once devoted an episode to the topic. The episode description for Failing Forward says everyone experiences failure and has a choice between persisting through it or quitting early, and that the guest shares his definition of failure, practical examples and advice on progressing while appreciating the journey. The page is a short summary, so it supports the existence of the idea in FFA culture rather than the details.

Lean on Other People

Feedback does not only arrive from judges. FFA’s record-keeping tips encourage members to lean on those around them, including advisors and older members, when learning a system, as in Revamped Record Keeping. Asking for help early is a feedback skill: you are inviting correction before the judge does.

A Five-Step Feedback Routine

  1. Pause. Write down the feedback without responding for at least a few minutes.
  2. Clarify. Ask one question to understand the specific behavior being described.
  3. Separate. Mark what concerns the performance and what concerns you as a person. Only the first is usable.
  4. Choose one change and practice it before the next event.
  5. Close the loop. Tell the person who gave the feedback what you changed.

Honest Limits

Feedback culture varies by chapter and coach, and some feedback is poor, unfair or unkind. No cited source shows that FFA members handle criticism better than other students. The argument is narrower: FFA supplies unusually frequent chances to practice. A member who avoids contests and offices gets few of them. The routine above is this site’s suggestion, not an FFA program.

Several past presidents on this site went on to careers with built-in scrutiny: Donnell Brown in cattle and industry leadership, Kelli Evans as an association president and Nels Ackerson as a Washington lawyer.

Sources

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