Why Feedback is the Breakfast of Champions

When you’re the manager, it can be down-right difficult to get candid feedback from our employees. When you do you tap a potential often unrealized in you and them. However, often times critiques or compliments are coated with ulterior motives or filtered by fear. Your team doesn’t want to tell you something that might put them on your “bad side”, so they choose to tell you that which is more likely to land them on your “good side”. Can you relate?

Feedback from My Team-The Best Training Ever

We had a great month as a team. So I impromptu mention one day to everyone we should go out for a quick bite and drink on me. While not all could make it, five others joined me. So, we found a nice place close by the office and ordered dinner. One person mentioned we should do something else with the others. We agreed to set it up at the next team meeting. Our discussions wandered about everything but work. I mostly sat there and occasionally added a comment. We told some jokes and had a few laughs.

Later, out of the blue, someone brought up a problem at work, and part of it involved me. It caught me a bit off guard. Everyone at this point was pretty loose and relaxed so the conversation flowed freely. I held my tongue, listened and asked clarifying questions. I became amazed as the conversation wandered into deep territory about a goal that we were struggling with. Each person directly but respectfully shared about problems and innovative ideas. Furthermore, I received genuine feedback to back-off from direct involvement. The team agreed that our service manager had more experience in that particular area.

Transforming from Manager to Leader

As a result, the discussions morphed into slow motion for me, like how they do in the movies in some action scenes. Consequently, I listened more, thought about their feedback, asked questions, and lightly facilitated a discussion that was already working well. Not that I had great skill and insight on how to handle what was happening. It just seemed right. We ended up in a good place agreeing to a plan for better results in the future. In addition, it included what I needed to delegate, and where I could focus more to be more effective. I learned valuable lessons about how to get and hear feedback that night. Some of the best training I ever had.

While I already respected my team, my appreciation for them grew immensely. Their performance seemed to get even better. Mine, too. Our trust for one another strengthened. I often wondered what would have happened if I had reacted defensively or lashed out and took charge of the meeting. Fortunately, I didn't, and I believe I began the transformation from manager to leader that night. I learned I didn't have all the answers, and it liberated me to keep learning, and to seek multiple perspectives.

"Feedback is the breakfast of Champions"

I believe Ken Blanchard coined the statement above. How powerful it is if we listen and act on it. Getting honest-to-goodness feedback from direct reports isn’t as easy as one might think. Yet, we need feedback about working with them, how to reach our goals, everyday problems and dealing with customers. Yet, here’s the thing: it’s pivotal to a leader’s success and development to ask, listen, learn and apply. Not only that, it’s necessary for a team’s success and development. After that night, getting and using feedback became seamlessly stitched in all of my communication. More importantly, the whole team embraced the idea. It just continued.

The better the manager becomes, the better the team becomes. Exceptional leaders live this out; they know that it’s their job to persistently and carefully request feedback, input and involvement. I am grateful my team taught me how to be much better at doing that.

Do you agree?

Do you want a proven game-plan for career success? If so, check out Rick's Superstar Leadership ebook. And, for a limited time receive a comprehensive complimentary Leadership Performance Plan.

Do you want a proven game-plan for career success? If so, check out Rick's Superstar Leadership ebook. And, for a limited time receive the comprehensive complimentary Leadership Performance Plan.

Check out the RCI SuperSTAR Leadership Blog, over 400 complimentary resources for leadership and personal development.

Also, here are a few other posts to check out. Thank YOU!

• Real Leaders Are Good at Listening and Follow-through
• The Lost Art of Servant Leadership
• The Plague of Employee Dissatisfaction and Disengagement
• ?The First & Only Rule of Leadership
• The #1 Glaring Weakness of a Bad Leader
• 10 Keys To Employee Engagement
• 7 Keys to Unleash Employee Motivation, Productivity and Engagement
• 13 Troubles of Terrible Teams
• Leadership is About People, Not Your Paycheck
• 6 Proven Ways to Deal with a Bad Boss