The name of this blog comes from our mission at INFLUENCE: “To empower people with clarity and confidence.”
Our objective is to provide brief but meaningful topics (under 500 words) that inspire, educate and empower leaders through resources both inside and outside of INFLUENCE. This week’s edition is provided by David Salmons.
A great way to grow leadership skills is to take action – that is, to follow your own leadership initiative, and then to ask for feedback once your team and its objectives are underway. Experience is king.
Still, those who take action in this manner can find themselves puzzling over how to respond to feedback when it arrives. What follows then are a few simple ideas about how to manage and make use of feedback.
- First, a gentle warning: recognize that not all feedback is created equal. Some employees are so deeply in pursuit of their own objectives that they won’t be able to acknowledge a leader’s responsibility, prerogative or perspective. That means as you, the leader, consider your team and its goals, you may find yourself shelfing feedback that’s too self-centered to be immediately (if ever) useful. Being forthright in these situations can help, with responses like: “I don’t see how I can act on this feedback currently, but I hear you and will keep this in mind.” Sometimes, people just want to be heard.
- Beyond that, in general, respond to all constructive feedback with a “Thank you.” Do so even when you’re the target of that feedback, without which you may not recognize an approach or assumption that’s creating confusion for the team. Again, saying “Thank you” let’s people know they’re heard and valued, encouraging them to trust in your feedback initiative and stay engaged with the process of growth.
- Repeat their feedback back to them in your own words. Ask them if it sounds like you’re getting it right. Too many times leaders think they get the message when they don’t. This is often because leaders and team-members function in different zones of experience. Remember, different experiences provide different perspectives, so clarification is key.
- Use feedback to make changes. Few things frustrate employees more than offering thoughtful or even courageous feedback that produces nothing. Take good feedback very seriously. Apply it to grow yourself and your production system.
- Let people know how their feedback brought about improvements. Both private and public acknowledgement may be in order, depending on the topic.
In conclusion, when people learn that they’ll be heard and they can see that their perspective is valued, they tend to take more ownership. This means that the benefits of requesting and implementing feedback have as much to do with improving employee culture as they do with helping you, the leader, learn to lead better – and that’s undeniably a win for all.