A Powerful Side Benefit of Asking for Feedback

The best way to improve your own performance as a leader is by regularly asking for feedback and suggestions from the people who are most impacted by your actions. But improving your own performance is not the only reason to ask for this input.

I recently finished a course in Marshall Goldsmith’s Stakeholder Centered Coaching . The process used in Stakeholder Centered Coaching is simple. First, you set a goal for how you’d like to improve your own behavior. Then each month, you go to each of your stakeholders (such as members of your team or peers you work closely with) and ask two questions.

The first question is: “What have you observed me doing in the past 30 days that was or was not helping me meet my goal?”?

The second question is more important, because it’s about the future: “What suggestions do you have for the next 30 days?”

Each of these conversations only takes five minutes. You then review the input with your coach, and decide what to do differently in the coming month.

As a result, you make consistent progress on the one behavioral goal most essential to improving your performance. That’s already a big win.

But it occurred to me that this approach has a huge side benefit. As a leader, you are asking the people who work for you to consider what action would most improve your performance. This gives each employee time and space each month to consider what behaviors are most effective in your leadership role. They are observing you, watching how others respond to your actions, and constantly thinking about what suggestions would be most helpful to you.

In other words, you are encouraging your team to think about success at the next level, and actively developing their capabilities.

You get better. Your team learns and grows. It’s a win/win.

?Whatever your biggest challenge or opportunity, I am always happy to help.

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Amanda Setili helps successful leaders and their teams agree on what needs to change and how to make it happen. She is author of?Fearless?Growth :?The New Rules to Stay Competitive, Foster Innovation, and Dominate Your Markets, and?The Agility Advantage , How to Identify and Act On Opportunities in a Fast-Changing World.?

For more strategies, videos and free materials, please visit?www.setili.com , and check out these quick examples of the type of work we do. ?Or, contact?Amanda ?to discuss how she works with companies to improve profits, performance and growth.