Your Feedback Blind Spot Is Holding You Back

Try these proven strategies to invite honest feedback and improve as a leader

Leaders have a feedback crisis on their hands right now.

According to this excellent study from Gallup, only 40% of employees say they’ve had the opportunity to formally provide feedback to their manager.

As leaders, it’s easy to dish out feedback and tell our co-workers exactly what they need to do to improve. And that’s important!

But it’s just as important to make sure you’re inviting that feedback about your own performance.

It can be tough to put yourself out there and ask for it. And even when you do, it’s not easy to get people to tell the boss what they really think!

But if you don’t have feedback on your own performance as a leader, it’s almost impossible to improve. Worse yet, you may miss big ideas, frustrate your team, and limit your own career path forward.

To help you avoid the feedback crisis, I’m sharing three strategies you can use to get more feedback from your coworkers and become the kind of self-aware, listening leader that everybody wants to work for.

Cultivate the mindset you need to hear feedback.

It’s no big mystery why managers struggle to ask for feedback. Nobody loves hearing what they’re not doing well. 

That’s why, before you invite that feedback, you’ve got to adjust your own mindset to be receptive to it. The last thing you want to do is hear feedback and then get defensive!

In fact, when I asked Marisa Thalberg, a Forbes CMO Hall of Fame Marketer, for her #1 piece of advice to become a better leader, she focused on this mindset.

“You have to be willing to look at yourself honestly, as opposed to defensively—and it's hard,” she said.

Cultivate a mindset that sees feedback as a gift—a necessary step on the road to getting better.

It’s tough, but it’s worth it. As Marisa says, “Those have been some of the most humbling, but ultimately transformative moments that I've had as a leader.”

Here are some reflection questions that can help you cultivate that mindset for yourself:

• How does inviting feedback from those you lead make you feel? 
• Do you seek out feedback regularly, and do you act on it?
• What areas of your leadership do you feel most need your attention?

Key Insight: Look at yourself honestly, not defensively

Marisa Thalberg, Chief Brand and Marketing Officer for JCPenney

Create the right channels for feedback

As reluctant as managers are to ask for feedback, team members are often just as hesitant to offer it up.

Frank Blake, who co-founded The Home Depot, warns leaders about how hard it can be to get honest feedback when you’re the one in charge. 

As he told me, “If you walk into a store and say to the store manager, ‘How's everything going?’ [then] there’s only one right answer to that question. The right answer is, ‘Everything is great. You're wonderful. Please leave.’”

It’s not because your team members don’t have a lot of feedback to share. It’s just hard to look your supervisor in the eye and tell him or her what they’re not doing well! 

That’s why it’s important to solicit feedback in several channels. Team members may hesitate to speak up directly, but they’re more likely to provide honest feedback through anonymous surveys or written evaluations.

If you want to stay connected to what’s going on in your business and how your leadership is impacting it, you’ve got to create spaces where people are willing to tell you the truth as it really is.

To help, here are some questions you might use in a written or anonymous survey:

• Do you feel comfortable approaching me with concerns or suggestions? Why or why not?
• How well do I support you in achieving your professional goals?
• Do you feel I provide adequate feedback on your performance?
• Is there anything you wish I did more or less of as your manager?

Key Insight: Beware the leadership bubble

Frank Blake, Cofounder of The Home Depot

Seek out feedback

The best way to communicate to everyone that you want your feedback is to seek it out—regularly, actively, and persistently.

The more you ask your people what you could be doing better, the more readily they’ll share it.

One of my favorite stories about this comes from Ken Chenault, the CEO of American Express. He isn’t shy about giving feedback to his team. And he welcomes it in return. It’s how he learned about “The Ken Zone”—the name his co-workers had for the moment when he’d zone out if he didn’t like their idea. 

It was a glaring weakness in his leadership abilities, but he never would have learned about it—and eventually fixed it—unless he’d actively and vocally asked for feedback.

Here are some questions you can ask informally as you talk with both your direct reports and your peers:

• If you had my job for a day, what would you do that I don’t?
• What’s one thing you wish were different about my leadership style?
• What are my blind spots?
• What would you say I’m known for around the office?
• Can you think of a recent situation where you would have acted differently than I did?

Key insight: Get honest feedback from your team on your performance 

Ken Chenault, Former CEO and Chairman of American Express

The evidence is clear: leaders who actively seek out feedback from their teams are better positioned to grow, innovate, and succeed.

Gallup's study reveals a huge opportunity—and most leaders are missing it. But the right approach to getting feedback on your performance as a leader will open up valuable insights, improve your effectiveness, and create a healthier, more open culture.

Start implementing these strategies today and watch your leadership—and your business—thrive.

Now, I’d love to hear from you! What strategies do you use to gather feedback about your own performance as a leader? And how have you grown as a result?

Drop me a note in the comments below. I can’t wait to get your feedback! 

Your Next Step

Listen to the “How to Give Feedback” playlist from the How Leaders Lead app! Click here to stream it now, online or in the app.