3 Ways to Seek Feedback as a Leader

In leadership coaching and training, there are several key areas where people seek help for maximizing their performance. Over the next few weeks, we’ll focus on one a week and provide you with some tools and tips to help you if the area is one in which you seek to develop as a leader.

Last week we pointed to feedforward and feedback as one of the steps in our coaching process. We often find, however, that this topic is also a tactical approach for improving performance. Many people in leadership roles, don’t seek feedback for themselves and do not provide adequate feedback to those they lead, which inhibits the ability to maximize performance.

Here are some tips and methods for seeking feedback for yourself:

1. Ways to seek informal feedback for yourself:

-Simply ask those around you what they see as your strengths and areas for improvement. Ask “What can I do better?” This shouldn’t just be done at work. It should be done at home as well.

-Listen to what others say or comment about you whether in humor or not. These comments are often a good indicator of how they perceive your strengths and weaknesses.

2. Ways to formally seek feedback for yourself: There are variety of good books out there that list questions relevant to leadership performance that can be found in 360° questionnaires. Use these questions to develop your own 360° evaluation and solicit someone’s help to distribute it to those you wish to gain feedback from. Have that person also compile the results for you in order to protect people’s confidentiality and provide better results.

-Books with good questions for consideration:

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

            Successful Manager’s Handbook

Another way to seek formal feedback for yourself is to simply take your performance evaluation process seriously. Hopefully your company has one. Utilize the feedback you receive in your review.

3. Hire someone to conduct a 360° evaluation for you: Make sure you vet  this person/firm appropriately. Although you can gain meaningful insight into yourself by seeking feedback on your own, this method may provide the most objective, and therefore the most actionable plan for maximizing your strengths and developing as a leader if you can afford to hire someone to conduct the review.

What is the best method you’ve used to seek feedback for yourself?