What will happen if I ask others what they really think?
What we are observing:
Asking for honest feedback or input from employees about either your leadership or their experience working for the organization can feel risky. You might expect to hear a litany of complaints and difficult requests, or worse: critical feedback about your leadership. These risks might prevent you from even asking.
If you don’t ask, you may not know what people really think and experience at work. Your well-intentioned efforts at improving performance, work culture, and productivity will lack vital biofeedback from the very “body” these initiatives are meant to serve. Without feedback or input, you are ultimately “flying blind” and your initiatives may fail to get traction, or be undermined by employees who experience things differently than you do.
Potential outcomes from seeking input/feedback:
Goal of feedback: to learn more about the impact of your behavior on others.We see feedback as a 3-phase event consisting of an invitation, the feedback process itself, and follow-up communication. Any feedback planning should encompass all three. Seeking feedback is a strategic act with potential costs and benefits. The outcomes of a well-executed feedback plan can be extremely valuable on many levels:
- Distinct from your intentions or the rationale behind the organizational policies you promote, feedback is data that reveals the impact of your behavior or those policies upon others. It also gives you insight into what matters to the people giving feedback. This data helps you choose more effective behaviors and implement policies that are more likely to be championed (vs. challenged or ignored) by your people.
- Your willingness to hear feedback about the impact of your behavior and/or organizational initiatives will increase trust and expand capacity for greater collaborative and creative output from your staff.
- Asking for feedback from others is an act of courage: it opens you to everything from applause to attack, from confirming your deepest fears to dispelling them, from utter silence to utter nonsense. Asking for feedback from others is an act of courage: it opens you to everything from applause to attack, from confirming your deepest fears to dispelling them, from utter silence to utter nonsense. The courage demonstrated by a leader who asks for feedback can become inspiration for others to do the same.
What we offer:
GLI knows how to create the right environment for candid sharing of truth and perspective among organizational staff and stakeholders. Our process supports leaders and their people in naming the ground truth (perspective, leadership/organizational feedback, needs and desires) in ways that build engagement and inclusion, strengthen relationships and foster greater resolve to do something constructive and sustaining with emerging information. Courage is always required. We help our clients assess risk and plan accordingly for the greatest benefit.
To learn more about our service offerings visit:
- Creating Collaborative Cultures
- Aligning Teams
- Facilitating Stakeholder Conversations
- Coaching Leaders
- Developing Leaders
Additional Resources:
- Why should I engage employees and stakeholders?
- How do I build trust and engage others?
- How do we get better at collaborating?
Also see our listing of Resources & Publications for more information on these topics.