How to Break the Top-Down Feedback Trap

I've said it before and I'll say again here, leadership isn't about us as the leader having all of the answers. True leadership is about creating the space for others to speak and share their views and ensuring that communication is a two way street. And that is exactly what we're going to talk about in today's episode of the Leaders Kit Bag. Hey, I'm Ben Morton. I'm a leadership trainer, executive coach and keynote speaker. And everything I do is designed to help create a world where people can go to work feeling inspired and motivated to give their absolute best whilst going home to their loved ones at the end of each day, feeling recognised for what they do and and appreciated for who they are. So here's the thing. There is often an imbalance in the feedback relationship that exists between a leader, manager, line manager and their team member. And that imbalance is skewed towards the leader. What we mean by that is that feedback tends to flow towards downwards towards the employee with relative ease in many cases. But it's much more difficult for feedback to come from the team member to the leader and that's a problem. In a recent leadership course I was running, someone in the group asked me a question which was, how do I share potentially sensitive feedback with my line manager now? My immediate response was wait to be asked. Now that is the safe option. It's the potentially non career limiting option. And of course everything is contextual. Nearly everything in leadership is contextual. Sorry. So there are of course lots of other options, but that is the safe option. And that question and my response, it highlights a key point. Feedback isn't naturally going to flow up to us as a leader or manager, no matter how nice we might think we are as a boss. That means as leaders and managers, we need to actively seek feedback. We have to invite people to share feedback with us, whether it's about how we are operating or the decisions we are making as a team or as a business, we have to seek that feedback ourselves. So how do we do it? Well, there are a few ways. One way to talk to you about right now is to think about using psychologically safe phrases and language to make it okay for people to share their view with them. These might simply be things like, what is one thing I could have done differently this week to support you? It could be, what am I not seeing here? From my perspective, it could be, what else can I do to make it easier for you to perform in your role? And you'll have loads yourself. So wherever you happen to be listening, please share them in the comments so we can build up a list of some of the phrases we could use and what you are doing. So that's it for today's episode of the Leader's Kit Bag. Make sure you are inviting and requesting feedback. Make sure you are making it safe for people to share their feedback by careful choice of languages that really communicates the message that you do want to hear what people have got to say and it is safe for them to share it with you. And perhaps most importantly, when they do share their perspective, the only real response that you can give is thank you. That's it for today's episode of the Leaders Kit Bag. If you're finding them useful, head over to my website@Ben-morton.com where there are heaps of other resources to help you on your journey to be the best leader you can possibly be. That's it for now. Look after yourself and those you've got the privilege and responsibility to lead. And until next time, lead on.