Better questions = better feedback

Hi! It’s me again!

I’m back after the team took over the blog last week. It’s been a busy—and amazing—couple of weeks over here. Between the team surprising me in Houston for our anniversary and hosting our fourth Human Leadership Program, my cup runneth over!

Speaking of the Human Leadership Program . . .

One of the biggest topics we cover is feedback. In addition to exploring how to give feedback that is productive, compassionate, and kind, we also dive into how to solicit quality feedback.

It used to be that when I wanted feedback from my team, I would ask leading questions or yes/no questions that didn’t lead to impactful answers. I’d say things like, “Do you have feedback for me?” or “The meeting was great, right?” Rarely did anything valuable come from conversations that started this way. My questions implicitly told people what kinds of answers I was looking for: “Yes, of course the meeting was great!” or “No, I don’t have any feedback for you.” They didn’t inspire any critical thinking, and they didn’t leave room for real feedback—which, in hindsight, I was probably avoiding out of fear.

Over the years, I’ve learned that if you want better feedback from people, you must have the courage to ask them better questions. It’s one of the keys to growing as a leader: asking questions that will inspire people to be honest about what you’re doing well and where you have room to grow. Being intentional and specific about the questions you ask can also help you understand how to best support those around you.

To help, I’ve put together two question banks that you can pull from the next time you feel inspired to solicit quality feedback:?

Questions to help you grow as a leader:?

• Where do you see my biggest opportunity for growth as a leader?
• How do you see me getting in my own way?
• What are two things I should keep doing that are having a positive impact on you and the team?
• What am I doing that is making it harder for you to do your job?
• What is one thing I can do that would make the most impactful difference in our working relationship?
• What is one thing I can do to make my processes more efficient?
• What is one thing I could do to make our meetings more effective?

Questions to help you better support others as a leader:

• What is one obstacle I could remove that would help you reach your goals?
• On a scale of 1-10, how confident are you that you can achieve this result? What can we do to improve that score?
• What decisions do you need from me in order to move forward?
• What are the barriers to you making momentum on this project??
• What can I do to make sure you have the time you need to focus on this goal?
• How am I doing at holding you accountable to this goal? What would you like to see me do differently?
• What would be the most impactful way I could support you right now?

I hope that these give you a starting point for asking better questions and that you’ll get better feedback as a result! And I have a challenge for you, if you’re up for it: Choose a couple of the questions above and use them to solicit feedback from someone you work with this week. And if you’re willing, write to us and tell us how it went! We would love to hear from you.

Happy asking!

Big hugs,

Kristen