GREAT LEADERS DON’T JUDT GIVE FEEDBACK – THEY TEACH FEEDBACK – AND THEY ELEVATE THEIR TEAMS
The leadership literature is flooded with articles, papers and books about feedback:
-How to Give Good Feedback
-How to Deliver Feedback So People Will Hear It the Way You Intend It
-How to Prepare for Giving Good Feedback
-How to Follow Up on Feedback
-How to Ask for Feedback from Your Own Manager
-How to Create a Plan to Act on Feedback Received
-How to Check in with Teammates on Feedback Follow-Up
So much of the literature about feedback is based upon one assumption: that the only valid feedback is given by a leader or manager to a teammate or teammates he or she supervises.
Frequently that feedback is documented and included in a team member’s personnel file, in a special electronic folder or in an annual review form. Subsequently, the manager may follow up with a check-in to see if the employee has implemented suggestions contained within the feedback. Or proactive employees might take the initiative and communicate the actions they have taken to put feedback tips into action.
What if feedback was viewed with a different mindset?
What if the manager or leader was not the only person empowered to deliver feedback?
What if giving feedback was viewed as a skill – as a skill that could be taught and practiced?
I was exposed to this interesting mindset several weeks ago during a webinar that was sponsored by Coaching.com. The presenter was Keith Ferazzi. Ferazzi is a consultant, coach and prolific author whose writing addresses leadership at all levels of an organization.
His books include “Never Eat Alone,” “Who’s Got Your Back,” and “”Leading Without Authority.” Ferazzi’s latest book is titled “Never Lead Alone: Ten Shifts from Leadership to Teamship.”
In this book he makes the point that a good leader gives feedback, but a great leader teaches team members to give each other feedback.
What a wonderful concept! This suggestion is one of 10 practices that Ferazzi’s research suggests lead to “co-elevation,” where all team members grow simultaneously as the culture evolves.
The 10 practices he recommends are:
- Shifting from hub-and-spoke to the leader to Co-elevation of the team – awakening team members to the hope and possibility of a new way of being and a heightened level of performance
- Shifting from conflict avoidance to candor – moving to an agreement to care enough about each other’s success that nothing will be withheld that might be valuable to achieving better outcomes
- Shifting from serendipitous relationships to purposeful team bond-building – engineering trust and true understanding among peers rather than relying on chance encounters
- Shifting from individual to team resilience – accepting the job of owning and lifting up each other’s energy and sustaining team resilience
- Shifting to elevate collaboration through broader co-creation and meeting shifting – moving to a bolder and more inclusive approach that leads to greater diversity of thinking
- Shifting to agile as the new operating system – adopting the only viable operating system to navigate today’s volatility and constantly adapt to bold initiatives
- Shifting from a culture of scarce praise to peer celebration and recognition – making recognition come abundantly from peers, not just leaders
- Shifting to diversity, inclusion, and belonging – turning unspoken divides into bonding and productive conversations
- Shifting to a team of seekers who are each other’s coaches – accepting teammates as coaches and holding each other accountable
- Shifting from silos to alignment – achieving what most fail to achieve and sustain: true and constant alignment even through volatility
Ferazzi’s suggestions are all worth pondering and reflecting on. I encourage you to purchase his new book.
And, even before you do so, please consider teaching your teammates how to give meaningful feedback to each other – it will truly enhance your workplace culture!
If you believe this content would resonate with a friend or colleague, please feel free to forward it along!
-Larry