Susan Drumm walks through four steps to get honest feedback from your team: create a feedback culture with small questions first, ask repeatedly and dig in, be genuine about why you want it, and actually act on what you hear. A C-suite leader's intimidating style killed candor entirely.
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Foreign welcome to the Leadership Insights edition of the Enlightened Executive. Each episode we feature groundbreaking techniques and strategies to help you get the edge in personal and leadership effectiveness. Today we're talking about how to get real feedback from your team. So do you think you can get your team to give you honest feedback? Like no holds barred honest? Well, many of my clients tell me they struggle to get real feedback from direct reports and I'm not surprised. One of my senior clients recently received the results of his 360report and was surprised to learn that his team felt they weren't being mentored effectively by him. So, not so happy with this. Of course. He walks out of his office and proceeds to go desk to desk. Was this comment from you? Do you think I'm a good mentor? Do you have the problem with how I'm leading? Well, unsurprisingly, pretty much everyone told him that no, no, everything was fine and they weren't the ones that had the issue with him and his mentorship style. What was the result of all that? Well, the team members felt less inclined to be honest about their concerns in the future. The CMO thought, well, I don't need to change anything because he's basically terrified the staff into telling him what he wanted to hear. And basically the mentoring problem remained unsolved. Now granted, this is a more extreme case, but Even well meaning CEOs and senior leaders have trouble getting honest feedback because it feels uncomfortable to tell our boss what we really think when they hold the power over the purse strings. So I don't want this to happen to you or your team and I'd love for you to hear these four steps to get honest feedback from your team. Create a culture of honesty and feedback from the outset. It shouldn't feel wildly out of character for you to ask your team for feedback. It shouldn't be happening once a year. At the end of the year, when you ask them to take part in a 360 assessment, it shouldn't be the first time you've ever elicited their input. See, when we make space for frequent feedback, our direct reports know we value their opinions. So how often are you asking for feedback about your leadership? Is it twice a year? Is it once a month? How about once a week? How will you know how effectively you're leading your team if you don't ask the questions about how you're impacting them? But of course, we want to move on to deeper level questions about your leadership and their experience of the company. So here are some questions you might Ask what's your favorite thing about coming to work? What aspect of your work makes you want to stay in bed and just hit the snooze button? If you could change one thing about our culture, what would it be? How effective are team meetings that I facilitate and what could I do to make them more effective? Who's the best boss you've ever worked for before coming to work for our team, and why? What suggestions do you have for me based on your experience with them? You start by asking them feedback on small things and they see you making changes based on that feedback. They're much more likely to give you honest feedback on the big stuff, so sometimes you have to warm up to it. Okay, so that's all number one. Number two, dig in when asking for feedback. So the first few times you ask your direct reports for feedback, you might just get a lukewarm everything's fine, you know, whatever you think is best kind of response. But when you truly want your team's feedback on something, you need to keep asking them for it. And it might take multiple requests and multiple months, but if you keep asking, you'll eventually get some helpful answers because you're really showing you're tenacious and really serious about getting feedback. Number three, be honest and genuine. When you ask for their input, tell them why you want this feedback in the first place and what you hope to do with it. Explain your goals as a leader and how their feedback can really help you and the team and ultimately the whole company. Many direct reports view 360 feedback surveys as a necessary evil mandated by HR and maybe just a space to write a few lukewarm criticisms that will never be addressed. But if your team understands how impactful their feedback can be and how important it is that they just be forthcoming, they're more likely to be honest about where there are real opportunities for growth. Number four, Once you get the feedback, do something with it. Thank everyone who took the time to give you feedback. Regardless of whether that feedback was negative or positive, make sure they know that you've helped both you and the company by being honest. Most importantly, do something with the feedback they've had the courage to give you. If several people mentioned that your meetings run too long, figure out how you can make them shorter and make sure you do not go over. If people wish you raised your criticism more constructively, then work with a coach to strengthen that skill and make sure your team realizes that you're making these changes because of their feedback. Next time you send out a meeting invite, you could do a line that says no, your eyes do not deceive you. This meeting is in fact only 20 minutes. It seems everyone prefers shorter meetings and I really appreciate that feedback. So do you need help getting honest feedback from your team? We'd love to help you create an environment where that can happen. So if you want more information on how we could support you, go to susandrumm.com and get in touch. If you like this content, please hit subscribe. Hit the like button or leave a five star review. Thanks so much. Hope you enjoyed today's episode and I'd like to point you to the next important step. Hit the subscribe button to get notified when we release new content. I'll see you on the next episode of the Enlightened Executive.
