Failure to Get Feedback: The Mistake That Could Be Stagnating Your Success

If you’re a business leader or someone managing employees, you may have seen the title of this blog, rubbed your hands together and thought, this should be a good article to send around to the office about how they can take a little more criticism! While all employees need to be able to receive feedback well, it is equally vital that those in positions of authority actively seek feedback from our colleagues and subordinates. It sounds foreign to some leaders, but it’s key, both for personal growth and for the betterment of a company.

Here are the top three reasons you should actively ask for employee feedback:

1. It Builds Trust

If your employees know that you are willing to hear from them and incorporate their feedback, they will be far more willing to put their trust in you as a leader. They will know that they can come to you with their concerns and questions, whereas some workers in more closed-off environments may sit on their unspoken ideas, grievances or concerns, and that can get out of hand or backfire if it has no outlet. Most people leave their leader because they don’t feel that their thoughts and ideas are valued--they don’t feel like they have a voice. People don’t trust their leader if their leader doesn’t truly listen to, respond, and engage with their employees with empathy. On the other hand, employees that feel like their leader listens and truly cares about them, not only trust their leader but bring their best to help the team leading to high performance and great places to work.

2. It Encourages Communication

Employees who know their boss is eager to engage in candid, private conversations seeking to get to know their employees and showing how much they care about them on a personal level, are more likely to be candid and honest in public work gatherings. When there is a culture of ongoing dialogue, people are more relaxed and unafraid to speak up with ideas, as they know they won’t be thrown to the wolves simply for making what may turn out to be an unviable, off-the-cuff suggestion. This can result in powerful brainstorming sessions where people confidently share thoughts, ideas, and opinions collaboratively, usually leading to a much better result. High performing teams usually have a culture where each of the team members values one another’s different perspectives and experiences, and are eager to engage and participate with each other in collaboration, truly trying to listen and understand each different perspective before settling on the best path forward. 

3. It Will Improve You

This may seem obvious, as improvement tends to be the benefit of constructive feedback, but the lack of many leaders who welcome it would indicate that they don’t think their employees have good constructive criticism to share (or they are afraid it will not be well received by the leader). These types of leaders simply don’t believe their subordinates are worthy of giving feedback that could help them (or they are so focused on themselves, they can’t possibly be bothered with how they as leaders are coming across to the rest of the team or even consider that others on the team may have ideas that could help the team or the leader improve). But the reality is we all have room to grow and to improve our communication. 

While it may be true that someone in the C-Suite has far greater experience than a less-experienced new hire, that doesn’t mean the new-hire doesn’t know or thing or two from which the leader could learn or the team could benefit from! For example, I always tried to have a valued colleague on my team who provided me the unvarnished truth about how I was coming across to others. There were times when what I was trying to communicate did not come across the way I intended.

It took a lot of trust for the person to tell me, and I always valued that input, even though at times it was tough to hear. But that allowed me to clarify and sometimes even apologize to the person that I may have unintentionally offended or hurt, which helped to rebuild our trust. If you don’t have someone like that on your team, I highly recommend you think about who could serve in that role to help you, no matter what your position is on the team. 

Welcoming feedback is not merely beneficial for personal betterment. It can transform the culture of a workplace, helping its members evolve from timid to bold, from reserved to gregarious and fun, from frazzled to inspired, and from withdrawn to fully engaged. At the end of the day, you as the leader are far more equipped to build a team that people want to be part of and fully engage with and contribute to if you actively encourage and seek feedback from others, and then allow that feedback to transform you into the best person you can be--a person that others trust, respect, and want to bring their best to work alongside you on your high performing team.