Tuesday’s Tips — Leadership Feedback

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I had it once with one of our SaaS companies recently where they saw themselves one way, one of the leaders on the team, the CEO and the rest of the team saw them a completely different way. Well, this gives rise to something really useful. I'll share it with you in just a second. My name is Bill Gallagher. I'm the Scaling Coach, host of the Scaling Up Business podcast and we do tip shows as well as deep dive conversations with gurus, interviews with CEOs about growing their companies and more. You'll find it wherever you get your podcast or video content. Or you can go and search the entire back catalog of hundreds of these things at scalingcoach.com at scalingcoach.com you'll find the show notes, the links, the references, the special offers, all that and more. And you can find something related to whatever you're dealing with, what's most important to you right now. So if this isn't it, then there's probably something there for you at this point after covering this for a number of years now. So anyway, back to the example. So I've got the SaaS company, we've got a leader who's just a little bit off. They think of themselves one way, the rest of the team sees them another way. And there's a surefire thing that's good no matter what. Whether you're delusional or not, this is a great way to level up your Leadership. So these are leadership assessment interviews. I learned this from the work of Fernando Flores in particular. But it's definitely a deeper, better cut at something than we get, typically with like a 360 review or something that produces a lot of noise and nonsense. In the leadership assessment interview, I go to people on my team and I say, people around peers, people I report, superiors, subordinates, peers, et cetera. A range of people in my world. And I say, listen, I'm developing myself as a leader. I'm committed to making a difference here, to being a contribution to this organization. And I know I have to keep leveling up myself. So I'd like your honest feedback. I don't want the normal, polite kind of diplomatic conversation. I want you to tell me the truth. I really will take everything you have to say and I will use it well. But I really need some honest feedback about how I'm perceived. And I don't want to just know what you think about me. I'd love to hear what you think, everyone thinks about me, including your opinion, but also others. Because I really have to know how I'm perceived if I'm going to be effective here as a leader and if I'm going to keep growing and leveling up. So you say that, and people say you get so much for it. Then you start in with some easy things. So great. So please be honest. Tell me the full thing. Let's start with the good stuff. What am I great at? What are my strengths? What am I known for? Probe good things first and keep probing. Listen to it. Get it all. Really take it in. Don't deflect it like, oh, yeah, yeah, don't be modest or any of that BS about it. Just take it in. It's real. It's how they see you. It's not the truth, but it is how they perceive you. So accept it and embrace it. Acknowledge it it, understand it and hear it in their words, even if it's familiar to you. Then flip it up and go to the negative things. All right, what are my weaknesses? What can I be counted on for? What do I need to work on? What am I terrible at? And then start to probe that and keep creating safety room for them to actually be honest with you and give you the real deal. You will hear some things that you can work on. Some of the things could sting a little bit. They might be things that you wished weren't true, that you'd hoped had disappeared over time. For the most part, these conversations are much easier than you realize. And you Hear things that you could work with. Sometimes you also hear things where there's a missed expectation and you just want to manage it. I had somebody once give me feedback and say, we think the CEO should be doing these things. And our old CEO used to do that. And I said, oh, that's really great. I'm not good at those things. I'm never going to work on those things. I don't think that's the CEO's role and I get that you liked it, but I'm never planning to work on that and it's not how I see myself in my role. And if that's important to you, we're going to struggle. And they ended up leaving the people who said that to me over some time anyway. It's useful to reconcile and get that other things you heard, you're like, oh, I could work on that. I could own that. That's actually valid. Even in this case, the things they said about me in those interviews years ago, they were totally valid. I just wasn't intending to work on them. In any case, we cleaned up the relationships. I advanced myself as a leader. And every time we do this, if you're really willing to listen and develop yourself and consider there's something for you to work on, there's opportunity here anyway. I hope that's helpful. Go do some of those leadership interviews anyway. I think you'll find that they're liberating and illuminating and they're much better than you expect them to be at first and there'll be real nuggets that you can take away. I hope that's helpful. Like subscribe, come back and get them every week and keep scaling up. We'll talk to you next time. Are you ready to turn your goals into daily wins? You should check out our Scoreboard software. Powered by Align, it's the official software for scaling up. With Scoreboard, you'll get an AI driven coach for priorities and KPIs and it'll help keep your team focused on what matters most. With Align, you can track your goals in real time and you'll even see results on the go. With their mobile app, you can rest easy knowing that Align has world class onboarding and support to set your team up for success. This is really more than just software. It's what I actually use to manage growth in our scaling up client teams. Unlock clarity and results with Scoreboard by Align. To try it now, go to aligntoday.com Bill G One more time. Aligntoday.com Bill Gateway that's Aligntoday Com. Bill G. Check it out and try it now.