Getting Feedback: Who Wants It?

Chief Learning Office quotes Leadership researcher, writer, and educator Jim Kouzes (I’ve further excerpted the quote for a bit more brevity):

“…even with all this 360-degree feedback that we have been gathering over the years, leaders don’t want it. They don’t voluntarily go out and ask people, ‘How am I doing?’ They do it because learning officers and HR executives say you really ought to have 360 feedback to improve your behavior. But in fact, on a day-to-day basis, we just don’t ask for it. We haven’t really created a culture in which making ourselves vulnerable and opening ourselves to really gather information about our behavior is supportive. People fear getting honest feedback.”

A couple of weeks ago, on the television show The Apprentice, we saw one of the contestants mocking another who asked for feedback. Changing the simple request for “How am I doing? How could I improve?” to a whiny-toned exaggeration of a need for approval, this contestant was a reminder why so many managers fail to ask for feedback: they fear not just the feedback, they fear being thought “wimpy” or insecure if they seek feedback.

Yet leaders need feedback, and relying just on your guess about what people are thinking is not good enough. The excellent leader is one who knows how to ask for and get tough feedback, and then make corrections. If someone interprets that as weakness — it only shows their depth of fear at the discovery of their own imperfections.

Without acknowledgement of a gap between a goal (excellent leadership) and where we are today, there is no growth. Only the perfect need ask for no feedback — and there Is no perfect leader, or human being, on earth.