Thanks For The Feedback

What about seeking feedback for yourself? Is that important to developing your own leadership capabilities?

Absolutely. I actually wrote an article about this, about how feedback has changed my career. And so I think people should proactively seek feedback about yourself as well. And one of the things that I actually do is instead of asking, oh, how did that go? So after this interview, I might say, how did that go? But instead say, what is one thing you think I could have done better? That is something which is really different. You're actually opening the door for someone to criticize. And that is a very different way of asking. When I ask people, hey, do you have feedback? Often people will say only the positives. But if you say, hey, what is one thing I could be doing to help you be better as a leader? What is one thing you think we can do to make our company more effective? Being really specific and asking for feedback, that is really important.

And as a leader, then how do you create a safe space for that? Because sometimes people are afraid to criticize the CEO.

I think the most important thing is actually thanking people and showing that it means something to you going back and saying, hey, thanks for that feedback. Here's what I did. Because they're watching, especially as a new CEO in this company, I've been here less than five months and they're watching. And I've worked with leaders who are so generous in asking for feedback and following up, and that makes you want to do it more. But I've also worked for leaders who didn't like to be criticized. And that made me shy to actually ever give them feedback. And what I learned from that experience is if you want more of something, you want to reward it, you want to thank people. And when other people see you at a meeting, thanking someone for criticizing you for giving you feedback, they will feel permission to do that as well.

That is so enlightening to hear Deborah, not all leaders seek feedback and we both know that, we both had bad bosses.

I mean, it's hard. It's not an easy thing, but at the same time, if you're not constantly seeking improvement, you can it get better.