Receiving Feedback as a Leader
Feedback is important because it helps you grow as a leader.
By receiving feedback, you gain a perspective that you may not have because it is difficult to assess your own behaviors/actions. By gaining another pair of eyes, you get a more holistic view of how you are being perceived by your employees: how you communicate, how you listen, and the atmosphere you create. All of these insights ultimately speak to the way you lead.
WHY AREN’T YOU RECEIVING ENOUGH FEEDBACK?
Most likely, an employee will be worried about the negative repercussions of offering feedback because they are not in a position of authority; along the same lines, the employee may feel that any feedback might hurt the leader’s ego. Additionally, if an employee has taken on a mere service provider role at work, he/she might not be as invested in the work as his/her employer. To the employee, work could be a means to an end, and his/her goal could singly be to satisfy the employer; most likely, to this employee, giving feedback to the employer will not matter as much.
HOW CAN YOU CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT THAT CONDONES MORE FEEDBACK?
Employees will give feedback when they feel assured that if it is provided, it will be well received. Try considering these three things:
(1) Work on your Image–A Leader who Leads. You will want to convey that you invite feedback. You might portray this by considering these inviting characteristics:
Confident, not insecure. How can you portray just the right amount of confidence so that the employee knows you can handle the feedback without being too sensitive?
Interested, not disinterested. How can you show a genuine interest in wanting to know the feedback? How can you show you are invested in wanting to know what you can improve? Even if you actively request for feedback in the ways discussed below, how can you convey that if/when the employee does provide feedback, that you will reassess and seriously consider the feedback? (Remember, you do not want to fall into the category of leaders who convey a pretext of caring by conducting surveys that could end up being a waste of your employees’ time.
(2) Create a Culture of Respecting People’s Ideas.
Rather than being dismissive, try creating a culture that invites, acknowledges, and entertains any idea that has the company’s best interest/goal/mission in mind. This way, the idea is considered and respected separate from the person that suggested it. Oftentimes, people are shy to suggest an idea because they do not want to be identified with the idea in fear that it might not be a popular idea. What if there are no bad ideas? What if there are only good ideas… and better ideas? This way, the better ideas will be implemented and the lesser ideas helped the decision making and were not necessarily dismissed.
(3) Make it Easy to Give Feedback. Gather as many data points as possible. While one feedback point can be an anomaly, more data points could be more insightful. SO HOW CAN YOU ASK FOR FEEDBACK?
Direct Request. Feedback does not have to be formal. You can seek it casually during a one-on-one catch-up over coffee.
Indirect Request. A survey where you can preconceive words you use to ask for feedback could also be helpful. Remember that if you are using a personal voice in your survey that words you use to communicate your ask contribute to your image as a leader (see above).
Alternative Ways. You can hire an outside party (one who is neutral) to give you an insightful perspective. Perhaps investing in an executive coach might be helpful.
FEEDBACK RECEIVED. NOW WHAT?
Keep in mind that while you welcome all feedback, you must personally regulate how the feedback impacts your person. There is a difference between respectfully acknowledging that an idea is heard and respectfully deciding for yourself what ideas are worth implementing. It is crucial that you learn to distinguish flattery vs. emotional vs. constructive feedback. Remember that while flattery feedback or emotional feedback could be constructive, they could also be destructive. Emotionally unhappy feedback–purely emotional feedback–could be coming from an employee who is not at a place to be giving feedback; it might ultimately be best to acknowledge the feedback, but pass mentally, so as to regulate your mental health.
SUMMARY
Feedback can be sensitive coming from employees because of the intricacies of boss-employee relationships. The feedback can be hard to get, so it is important to ask for it up front and provide ways for people to share it i.e. survey, creating the right environment. There is a challenge in figuring out what is true and not true so gathering more data points might be one solution.