“We all need people who will give us feedback. That is how we improve,” Bill Gates once said. The challenge is less about getting honest and actionable feedback. The challenge is immediately turning that feedback into more effective leadership outcomes.
It is not easy for senior leaders or business owners to find solutions these days. Most are expensive, heavily marketed “executive education” programmes that demand too much time and are a poor fit for our business reality. Sometimes our own experience and perceptions of the current reality can make it hard to upskill our leadership quickly enough.
However, in an era of unprecedented rapid change inside and outside our businesses, sharpening leadership skills is increasingly essential. Consider these questions senior leaders need to know and understand the answers to:
- If you are a senior leader, when was the last time you made a significant change to your leadership approach? What caused it, and what were the outcomes?
- If you work for a senior leader or business owner, when was the last time you saw them make a significant personal leadership shift? How did this affect you?
Feedback Challenges
We receive feedback constantly. All frontline supervisors, CEOs and business owners need this essential ingredient as the starting point to create the next, better version of our leadership, teams and organisations.
Leaders at all levels have learned the benefits of giving feedback. We have learned firsthand that the Generation Z and Millennial cohorts in our workforces demand it. We have learned to ask for it. Unfortunately, many of us have been too slow in taking the next step.
We have struggled to unlearn and reinvent leadership for a changing world. To gather feedback, and not immediately use it to make changes slows down our time to greater effectiveness as leaders. It also disheartens the people who gave us this gift. Think of your own experience. When you provide feedback to one of your leaders or people on his/her approaches, one of four things usually happens:
1. They nod their head, agree, and continue just as before so that inevitably you have the conversation again a little more forcefully, or rethink their future potential.
2. They firmly stick to the story that their approach is appropriate and acceptable, and the above cycle comes into play again. This can betray a fixed leadership mindset, arrogance, or a leader not knowing how to act on the feedback they are receiving.
3. They accept that they are not perfect, and part of their leadership may even be poor and present an opportunity to improve.
4. They freely admit that they struggle and gladly seek advice and help.
This happens with leaders at all levels. Like 3 and 4, the sooner we adjust and respond to our employees’ needs, the sooner it will be profitable (get better results with and from our people). Changing our leadership behaviour is not easy. Here is how to begin:
Reality Check: Take a minute, check you are listening, and understand the person giving you feedback. All leaders are guilty of failing to do this at some time. But it becomes more important for our leadership effectiveness as we go up. Have we developed the active listening skills we need? Are we truly seeing the person, empathising, and understanding what they are saying with an Outward Mindset?
I have personally seen amazing results by simply getting this part correct. This is not increasing the feel-good factor. It is essential to improving the bottom line.
Establish Priorities: You do not need to act on every piece of feedback at once. Find your highest-impact opportunities and invest in transforming your leadership capability. Today, more human-centric leadership is prevalent. Look for development opportunities that will help you cultivate it.
Young staff need purpose and inspiration: If you need to empower your people more, learn the principles of agile and Servant Leadership to figure out how you help them succeed. Innovation is essential, so learn the innovation process, and how to assess and evaluate the ideas of your people. Invite outside in thinking or learn from other leaders and leadership communities.
Act Immediately: Show them a new you. The sooner you act, the better. Let them know their feedback inspired your efforts, and you would like ongoing input and suggestions. But practise, and let others see you are practising. Most importantly, and challenging because of past successes, we have to accept it will take time.
We are all told we have failed or are failing at something at some time. It does not matter how high up the tree we climb. We will always need the Growth Mindset and a willingness to act on feedback and change.
Arinya Talerngsri is Chief Capability Officer and Managing Director at SEAC — Southeast Asia’s Lifelong Learning Center. She can be reached by email at arinya_t@seasiacenter.com or https://www.linkedin.com/in/arinya-talerngsri-53b81aa. Talk to us about how SEAC can help your business during times of uncertainty at https://forms.gle/wf8upGdmwprxC6Ey9