The Power of Feedback

High self-awareness is a key element in business success. It can be easily overshadowed by the sexier traits of charisma or sheer intellectual genius.  A study a few years back by Green Peak Partners and Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, quantified what employees have known for a while: "Companies and their investors need to put more effort into evaluating the interpersonal strengths of potential leaders. They should focus more on how a leadership candidate does the work, and not focus exclusively on what he or she has done.” 

How one gets things done and the improvements one might make over time are rooted directly in a leader’s ability to face truth about themselves. According to the authors of Heart, Smarts, Guts, and Luck, leaders can improve themselves. According to their Harvard Business Review article, leaders must become “more aware of what motivates them and their decision making.”

In the end, there are three characteristics of feedback that I believe capture why it is critical to our success; Feedback is a mirror, a gift, and a miracle.

Self-Awareness Requires a Mirror

I don’t mean the kind of mirror by which you check your teeth for spinach or fix your hair. I don’t mean the kind of mirror that customer service agents to make sure they are smiling when taking phone calls (however effective that might be). I am referring to a different type of mirror. The kind that tell you how you are showing up in your professional life that leads to self-awareness and reflection. That mirror is feedback.

"Although the quietest of the emotions self-awareness is an incredible predictor of emotional intelligence," writes Daniel Goleman in a study with Korn Ferry Institute. Turns out, the ability to respond to crisis, develop teams, and manage your own emotions are all skills that can be improved with better self awareness.

Every journey begins with a first step and there are a variety of assessments that you can take to improve your self-awareness. Some of my favorite are profiled here for your reference. I have used Kolbe and StrengthsFinders as team building tools, as well, to help us better understand our team mates and how to work together.

Feedback is a Gift that Isn’t Easily Given (or Received)

“Not all gifts arrive in neat packages,” said Carole Robin, director of the Arbuckle Leadership Fellows Program at Standard Graduate School of Business. “This is definitely true for feedback.” Leaders must be exceptional at giving feedback in order to develop their teams and achieve their goals.   Feedback delivered with candid compassion can transform businesses and relationships and most of us could improve our performance.

Leaders have a double responsibility however. They also need to make sure they are not missing out on the opportunity to receive the gift of feedback themselves. Ken Blanchard called feedback “the breakfast of champions.” And sometimes that breakfast is served is too cold, too warm, or too late, but it can be nourishing in any case.

We need to persevere and to find people who can tell us the truth.  “We all need people who can give us feedback,” said Bill Gates. “That’s how we improve.”

People are often hesitant to give pointed feedback to their boss or colleagues. The conversations are awkward and best and can be career limiting, if the leader values comfort and coddling over results and responsibility (and we have all known a few of those).

The gift of feedback must be received and given with open hands, open hearts, and open minds.  Create forums for feedback like 1:1 meetings, office hours, or surveys. In listening sessions, sit with your arms in a neutral position and try to constrain your reactions or defensive tendencies.

And just like your grandmother taught you: not all gifts are what you want, but because it is the “thought that counts” you have to treat the gift, and the giver, with graciousness. You must look for how you can best apply what you are learning. You may end up disregarding portions of what was shared, but it is in the consideration and reflection that changes occur.

Truth Telling is a Miracle (considering the obstacles)

In their book Execution, authors Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan, talk about the seven key traits of a leader and among them are “know yourself” and “insist on realism.” That last topic was so impactful to their thinking and their business success that they went on to write Confronting Reality. Yet in order for leaders to face reality, they need to be told the truth and they need to hear it clearly.

Failure to listen is more common than head cold among senior leaders. Combine this with the difficulty of speaking truth to power and it is no wonder that leaders can live in an echo chamber of glossed-over good news and ungrounded positivity.  We criticize our culture for believing fake news, but often live in a world of fake news about ourselves and our businesses. It is a wonder hard truth is ever spoken, in fact. We are all guilty of not speaking up boldly enough or not being as open to feedback as we should have. It really is a miracle when it happens. Yet, it is a miracle that we can encourage and even facilitate with the right behaviors and attitudes.

In addition to being open to constructive criticisms, it is critical that you understand the data that indicates business success. In most environments, these include revenue and margin or market share data as backward looking indicators. It is also important to look at early or forward-looking indicators such as sales funnel analysis or engagement metrics on key tools or campaigns known to convert to sales. These business dashboards serve the same purpose as the dashboard of your car: providing you a feedback loop that indicates if you are running at speed, violating conditions of success, or if you have a crisis pending. Data reporting and analysis can be an important part of your truth telling toolkit.

With a combination of mirrors, gifts, and miracles, we can lead better businesses and lead them better.

This article was originally published on LinkedIn Pulse.

Customer Feedback

Nothing beats customer verbatims.  Marketing teams might roll-up feedback from surveys.  Sales teams may advocate for their accounts.  But nothing is more powerful than the words (or video) of a customer talking about their experience.  Find more ways to get that into the organization and your products will be better and your customers more loyal.

What I Wish I'd Known When I Started My Career: Getting Your Career to the Right Start

Looking back in the early days of my career, I think about the lessons I learned that have helped me throughout my career. Now that I’m the CMO of Leyard’s international business and vice president of marketing and product strategy at Planar, I’m sharing those lessons in the hopes they will help new employees as they enter the professional workforce. 

As a new professional, you’re ready to take on a new set of challenges while working to build your manager’s trust and confidence in your abilities. Yet starting out on a new job can be daunting. Not only are you required to learn a new role, but you must navigate an unfamiliar company culture complete with a new set of processes, politics and personalities. As Michael Watkins, author of the guide, “The First 90 Days” has said, the first three months in a new job are both “fraught with peril—and loaded with opportunity.”* To do well in college, the professor gives you a syllabus and timelines for every assignment. The work world isn’t that way. You have to figure things out for yourself.

Here are seven lessons I learned early on in my career that can help you to embrace the opportunity, while avoiding the peril as you start on a new job:

1. Come prepared

A great way to hit the ground running is to learn everything you can about the company you’ve been hired to work for — before your first day on the job. Follow the company, its leaders and industry competitors on social media. Learn about the executive team. Read recent press releases, blog posts and news articles to learn about the company’s products and services, and where the business is headed. Having that background before you walk through the door will give you a significant head start, helping you to ramp up more quickly.

2. Dress appropriately

How you dress is a part of your personal brand, which combined with your work and behavior, defines who you are as a professional. Look at how the leaders in the company dress, and take clues from them. If you don’t know the dress code, the easiest thing to do is ask. And if in doubt, it’s best to err on the side of dressing more formally and more conservatively than what’s required, especially for young employees attempting to demonstrate their professionalism.

3. Take notes at every meeting

If I had to choose one thing to help young professionals demonstrate that they’re ready for the challenge, it would be pen and paper. By taking notes at every 1:1 and team meeting, you show that you’re prepared for new tasks. When you take notes, you communicate that you’re an active listener who’s engaged in the conversation and focused on taking action. And by documenting conversations, you establish yourself as a resource whom the team can rely upon to follow through on their commitments.

4. Listen and ask questions

Over the years, I’ve noticed that the new hires who adapt the most rapidly are first and foremost good listeners. By listening and observing, you get to know the different players and personalities at your new company, what their interests are, and how they interact. You also quickly learn the priorities of the company—including what has and hasn’t worked in the past. As a new hire, you should also take the time to ask questions. The first 90 days on the job are a grace period during which you’re not expected to know everything. By seizing this time to think strategically about the company and ask good questions, you demonstrate your curiosity while at the same time accelerating your learning curve.

5. Display a positive attitude

Studies show that that almost half of new hires fail within the first 18 months.** Interestingly, the biggest reason for this isn’t lack of skill, but attitudinal issues such as lack of coachability, low levels of motivation and the wrong temperament. By being humble, flexible, energetic and openly receptive to guidance, you will quickly establish a reputation as an employee who’s ready to work. Moreover, you’ll demonstrate that you’re a “can-do” person and a great team player.

6. Form the right relationships

Nearly every job has its share of gossipers and complainers. As you encounter these people, make sure to keep your distance. Instead, form relationships with productive co-workers who are focused on making a positive difference. Ask for guidance from those you respect. And take your co-workers to lunch to learn about the company culture and build a rapport.

7. Ask for feedback

Don’t wait for your manager to offer feedback. Proactively ask for it after you’ve spent a few weeks on the job and have had time to adjust to your new role. What’s going well? And what can you improve upon? By proactively asking for input from your manager, you make sure you’re moving in the right direction. And if adjustments are needed, you can quickly make them so that you exceed expectations in the long run.

With these guidelines top of mind, you will show your employer that you are ready and motivated to do your best work.

This article was originally published on Leaders in Heels blog.

Giving Feedback

Honest feedback, delivered with good intention, is an absolute gift.  It is hard to give.  It requires a sacrifice of pride, poise, and position.  It often requires speaking truth to power, which can be difficult and vulnerable.  But there is a spectrum of feedback that might require different approaches.

Telling someone they have “spinach in their teeth” is one end of the spectrum.  The bolder of us might even point that out to a stranger, but many of us struggle to do this with our own friends, family, and co-workers.  We figure they will eventually figure it out.  This is a problem we all have faced, we are always thankful for the quiet aside that helps us fix it, and yet we sometimes don’t offer the same courtesy to others.    This is an example of feedback that people are generally happy to hear, from someone they know and trust, as it saves them from embarrassment with others.

The other end of the spectrum is telling someone that their “baby is ugly.”  Maybe not their literal baby, but perhaps their pet project at work, their big idea, or their latest obsession.  It takes a lot of courage to tell someone something they will be ungrateful to hear.  They might not understand.  They will likely question your motivations.  The feedback might fall on deaf ears or, worse, backfire.  We have all heard those cautionary tales of whistle-blowers being fired, but in most cases it isn’t that dramatic, but can still feel vulnerable.

So, how do you approach giving feedback along this spectrum?  I find it always useful to preface your message with a reminder that you like them and want the best for them.  The spinach in the teeth might only require an “I figured you’d want to know” to start a conversation.  A bigger, more emotionally tinged, situation might require you to tell them that you care about them and the company and that is what is prompting the feedback.  

Always go to the person directly first.  In a personal way, like face-to-face or over the phone is best.  Emails or text messages are often taken harshly or misinterpreted, but that can work as well depending on the relationship.  Feedback like this should never be given publicly, as that makes everything worse.

What kind of feedback have you given and what have you learned about doing it well?

This article was originally published by the Technology Association of Oregon.

Feedback...it's the breakfast of champions.

“Feedback…it’s the breakfast of champions” – Dharmesh Shah