The Better Leadership Team Show
The Better Leadership Team Show
6 Ways to Get Feedback as a Leader
In this episode of Mike on the Mic, we dive into the importance of feedback as a cornerstone of personal and professional growth. Leaders often struggle to receive honest and constructive feedback, especially at senior levels. Discover six actionable strategies, including 360-degree evaluations, coaching, mastermind groups, and peer accountability exercises, to ensure you’re continuously improving as a leader. Learn how to build a culture of openness and growth within your organization. Whether you’re a CEO, manager, or aspiring leader, these tips will help you elevate your leadership game.
Tune in and transform how you lead!
Thanks for listening! Connect with us at mike-goldman.com/blog and on Instagram@mikegoldmancoach and on YouTube @Mikegoldmancoach
If you are the CEO, if you are a senior leader, very often people are uncomfortable giving you feedback, especially the most important feedback for you to hear. And without that feedback, You're not improving. And as the leader of your team or as the leader of your organization, I believe in something called the law of the lid, which is your team or your company is never going to scale any faster than you do. And if the only feedback you're getting is profit and loss type feedback that's not good enough. You made it to the better leadership team show, the place where you learn how to surround yourself with the right people, doing the right things. So you can grow your business without losing your mind. I'm your host and leadership team coach, Mike Goldman. I'm going to show you how to improve top and bottom line growth, fulfillment, and the value your company adds to the world by building a better leadership team. All right, let's go. If you want to get better at anything in life, in business, you need feedback. Feedback is the basic building block of improvement. If we don't have feedback, we don't know how we're doing and what we don't know what we need to do to get better. and the challenge is for leaders within an organization, especially if you're the CEO, the, the normal methods. To get you feedback don't exist. If you are a, just a team member within a company and you've got a boss and a boss's boss, et cetera. Well, if your company has the right processes and if you've got the right leader, they're hopefully giving you feedback all the time. Now that may or may not be happening. It doesn't happen in a lot of organizations, but if you're a team member. You get feedback, informal feedback, formal feedback through annual and quarterly performance reviews through one on one meetings through being pulled aside, you know, after that meeting and given feedback on what you did. Well, what you didn't do well, you might see that through promotions or lack of promotions. But if you're a leader. Especially a senior leader, especially a CEO. Very often we don't get that kind of feedback other than results of the business. What's our revenue, what's our profitability. And that feedback is critical. But other than that, we're not getting a lot of feedback. We may not have a boss that's giving us feedback. We may not have peers. That are comfortable giving us, giving you feedback or direct reports that are comfortable. If you are the CEO, if you are a senior leader, very often people are uncomfortable giving you feedback, especially the most important feedback for you to hear. And without that feedback, You're not improving. And as the leader of your team or as the leader of your organization, I believe in something called the law of the lid, which is your team or your company is never going to scale any faster than you do. And if the only feedback you're getting is profit and loss type feedback, that's not good enough. For you to improve. So what I want to share with you in this podcast are six different ways, and they're not the only ways, but six different ways that as a leader, you can make sure you're getting feedback. And I'm focused most here in these ways. If you're a leader, but you are reporting to someone else, well, you're probably getting. Some of that feedback, but some of this is going to apply to you, but I want to make it more extreme. If you're not getting that feedback, if you are the leader of your company, the CEO, the founder, the owner, that's really what I want to focus on because that's the most extreme case. And if that's not you, if you are the COO or the VP of sales or the, or an operations manager, well, great news. This is going to apply to you as well. So let's start with the six ways. The first is three sixties, 360 degree evaluations. I don't wanna spend a lot of time on this. there's enough information out there for you to go look up. 360's can be very powerful. And if you don't know what a 360 is, it's when instead of getting a performance review from your quote unquote boss, you are getting a, you are getting feedback. 360 degree feedback from whoever you're reporting to, whoever your peers are, your direct reports, people you work with, If you're the CEO, you, it's not a full 360 because you may not be reporting to anyone else unless you report to a board and you include them as well, which is possible, but 360s can be a great way to get feedback. There are a few problems with 360s though. Number one, three 60s happened very infrequently. Typically. Folks are getting three sixties. It may not even be once a year, but at most you're getting it once a year to go and ask people to give you that kind of feedback and do a formal three 60 is something that doesn't happen every month, every quarter at best. It happens once a year and I don't think that's good enough. It may be a great. Compliment to whatever else you're doing to get feedback. But once a year is not good enough. The second problem, or the second thing to think about with 360s, and again, 360 is a good process. I don't want to be too negative on it. It should be part of what's in your arsenal of things, of ways to get feedback. But the second challenge with it is people aren't always as honest as you'd like them to be in 360s. a lot of the most important feedback is not check the box, do they exceed performance, meet performance, you know, need help, that kind of thing. That's nice. But the most important feedback is the open ended, text. That comes on things you need to improve the comments as part of the feedback. Well, people are afraid to put comments in there sometimes cause they're afraid you may decipher, their written style and know who wrote that. And if people aren't comfortable giving you the tough feedback, they're not going to be comfortable with you knowing who gave them that feedback. Part of the power of a 360 is in its anonymity. There are some better tools out there. I used one for many years through a Wiley, called the, I think it's called the 363. You could, you look up Wiley 360 tool, but what it did is based on your feedback, it gave you a choice of comments that's pretty extensive and it took out all of, you know, Hey, they're going to decipher my writing style But anyway, 360s. important part of your arsenal of things you can do, but please don't let that be the only thing you do. It's too infrequent. Very often people aren't telling you the truth. So, so use it, but use it wisely. Second one, pretty simple is ask for feedback, ask. Your peers for feedback. If you have some, if you're the CEO, you may not truly have peers. You just have direct reports on your leadership team. But if you have peers, ask your peers for feedback, ask your direct reports for feedback. If you do have a leader you're working for, ask your leader for feedback. Don't wait until somebody gives you feedback. And one of the things you need to do, especially if you are a leader asking your direct reports for feedback, or even a leader asking your peers for feedback is be vulnerable first. Let them know that you're okay hearing the constructive stuff. You might start off by saying, I know I'm not very good at X, but I could really use some help. I know I've made mistakes before doing Y, but could really use your feedback. If you are vulnerable first, people will feel a greater level of trust and they'll feel like there's a greater chance you will take their feedback. Okay. seriously, and you won't take their feedback as an insult. Second thing is when you're asking for feedback, be specific and open ended. What do I mean by both of those things? well, not being specific is saying, what can I do better? That's not being specific. Not being open ended is saying, am I doing a good job of coaching you? Neither of those things. What can I do to get better? Am I doing a better, am I doing a good job of supporting you? Are not going to get you the answers you want. No one is likely to say, no, you're not doing a good job supporting me. That's a whack over the head. Most people are not going to be comfortable giving you. So being specific and open ended says. First of all, be specific about something, you know, don't ask how you could be better. Ask about a project, you know, an open ended, maybe what can I do to better support you on this project? What can I share that would make our vision clearer? You're asking about a project. You're asking about clarity of vision and you're doing it in an open ended way. Don't just say, how can I get better? So for this first way. Of getting feedback, ask, be vulnerable first and make sure when you ask for feedback, you're asking a question that is both specific and open ended. that was number two. So number one was 360. Number two is ask. Number three is get a coach. Now I know that sounds self serving, but I believe everybody needs a coach. The best athletes in the world don't do it. Without a coach. I have been a coach for the last 20 plus years and I have a coach. So get a coach. And you need to make sure you pick the right one, not a coach. That's just going to cheerlead. You pick a coach. That's that'll challenge you with the tough questions. Give you feedback on the way you're thinking the way you're behaving. So get a coach. And get a good coach that's going to challenge you. So Number one is 360, number two is ask. Number three is get a coach. Number four relates to coaching, but I call them coaching triads and they might be dyads, but I like doing in a triad. And one of the things that I do with my leadership teams that I recommend fully. Is I actually, if I have a leadership team together of six people, it doesn't matter how many, but let's say it's six people. I ask each member of that leadership team to identify one thing that they know they need to improve, that they are focused on improving. Over the next 90 days. And I asked them to be as specific as possible, as vulnerable as possible. Normally it has to do with business. Sometimes they pick something personal and that's okay too, but everybody identifies one thing they want to improve. One thing they're committed to improving. And then what I do is I break the group down into, if it's six people, I might have three dyads, three groups of two, or I might have two groups of three. And let's assume it's a triad for the moment. What I do is I have each of the leaders take turns and in each round of the three rounds, if it's a triad, one leader is taking a minute or two to describe what it is they want to improve and why they believe it's important. You then spend the next 10 minutes, 15 minutes, however long you want to spend. But I like to keep it short and really impactful where the other two leaders in the triad are coaching that leader on how they could improve. And when I say coaching, I don't mean giving advice. The best coaching is asking questions. Questions like what's the real challenge here for you? And I love that question. I'm stealing that from Michael Bungay Stanier, he's got a great book called the coaching habit that I recommend to. Everybody I speak to, but asking questions like, what's the real challenge here for you? What have you tried before? What's most important? What would success look like? Those questions help the leader. By modeling a way for them to think about this problem and help them come up with the right action for them. Giving advice may feel helpful and sometimes it is, but sometimes you're trying to solve the wrong problem and sometimes you're giving people advice. That's what you would have done, but it's not the right action for them. So in this coaching triad, one or two minutes to describe the problem, 10 or 15 minutes getting coached, and then you move on and you switch. That is such a powerful way of getting feedback. And that is something unlike three sixties. That's something if you wanted to do it every quarter, you can do that. So number one, three sixties, number two, ask number three, get a coach, number four, coaching triads, number five, become part of a mastermind group. I'm part of God. I think it's three at this point, but let me step back and describe what it is. So a mastermind and it was a term created by Napoleon Hill back, I don't know, a hundred years ago, and it's a group of typically peers that are all like minded in the fact that they want to grow their business, grow their teams, grow themselves, and they get together to help one another. Vistage or Tech Canada is a great example of a mastermind group within YPO, Young Presidents Organization. They have forum groups that are great example of a mastermind. You can go out and pay to become part of an existing mastermind like Vistage or YPO or Tech Canada or Women Presidents Organization, all wonderful organizations. You could also do what I did, which is Become part of one that you create on your own. I've been part of a small mastermind group of four coaches for God, it's probably the last 15 years and we've changed up people every once in a while. I'm part of a small mastermind group of three speakers where we talk once per month, I'm part of a mastermind group of. 12 other CEOs where we get together once for one. The idea is to have a group of people around you who can add value and challenge you. It's not a networking group, although you may or may not refer business to each other. It's a group where you could be vulnerable. And ask the tough questions and get feedback and give feedback. Super powerful. There's no reason why you need to be part of just one. Like I said, I'm part of one as a coach, one as a CEO, one as a, as a speaker. Part of the reason why I love it is it's one of the few times in my business where I get. Other people focused on my business as a coach. Obviously I spend most of my time focused on other people's business, but some of the most powerful pieces of feedback I've gotten have been from members of the mastermind groups I'm a part of. Let's go to number six, six. And I have a whole other podcast on this. It's called the peer accountability exercise. This is my favorite exercise that I do with leadership teams. And it's one where everyone around the table, if you get a team together, it doesn't have to be a leadership team. In my case, I do with leadership teams, it's the CEO and all of his or her direct reports. And. Each member of that team gets a chance to give feedback to everyone else on that team. So for example, the CEO is getting feedback on number one, what do they do that adds value to the team that they're thanked for and hey, I hope you keep doing this and what do they do that hurts the team. That they need to stop doing or they need to work on. And that's how it goes around the room. It actually starts with the CEO and each member of the team. It starts out around the circle where everyone gives feedback on that one thing. They want to thank them for that helps the team. Then when they go around, then they go around the circle again. And it's what hurts the team that they need to stop doing or change. And all the while the CEO is taking notes. On everything they're hearing and their only feedback, if they need clarification, they might say, could you give me an example or could you clarify, but other than that, their only response to getting feedback is thank you. Not, I agree, not, I disagree, but thank you. And they're not thanking the other people because they agree. They're thanking them for having the courage, the honesty, the passion about the company. To give that feedback. And then once the CEO is done getting feedback, you move on to the next person and the next person and on it goes. And when you're done, each member of that leadership team, again, starting with the CEO communicates from everything they heard what are one or two things they're going to commit to working on. Whenever I do this with a leadership team for the first time, most members of the leadership team are scared out of their minds. They think it's a horrible idea. they, they fear giving that open, honest feedback, but every single time when they're done, they say it was easier to do than they thought and more powerful to do. And one of the things that peer accountability exercise does is it builds everyone's muscles. Do not wait until another peer accountability exercise. And by the way, I do this once or twice with the leadership teams I work with. I don't, I think doing it quarterly is probably overkill, but once or twice a year, what it does is it builds people's muscles, their comfort in informally giving feedback in the moment. Now, CEO, I recommend you do this with your. Leadership team. It's really helpful to have someone else there to facilitate and facilitate it. If you do have a coach that you work with, it's why I do it with my teams. If you don't, you could still get it done, but it's really helpful to have someone else facilitate it. If you're not the CEO, if you are the VP of sales or the COO or the CFO, then I would recommend you're a part of two different. Peer accountability groups. Number one, with your peers on the leadership team and your CEO, do that as a leadership team once or twice a year. I also recommend as the leader of your team, as the COO, do the same thing with your direct reports. And as I said, with the senior leadership team, where the CEO goes first and the CEO is the model of how this should work, As COO, you go first when you're doing it with your team. super powerful exercise. If you want to know more, go and look at my podcast. There's one called the peer accountability exercise that does nothing but dive into this exercise. So I hope that helps. I've given you six different ways. To get feedback. Number one, 360. Number two, ask. Number three, get a coach. Number four, coaching triads or dyads. Number five, become part of a mastermind group. One or more. And number six, the peer accountability exercise. If you want to improve anything. Feedback is one of the key ingredients, if not the key ingredient. And remember the law of the lid, your team is not improving. Your company's not improving and scaling. If you as the leader are not improving and scaling, if you want a great company, you need a great leadership team. I hope you hope I got you closer there today. See you next time.