Getting Staff Feedback: Do You Dare?

Are you willing to find out how you're doing as a leader? Do you have the courage to ask your staff for honest, no-holds-barred feedback? Are you ready to take a risk in exchange for some major learnings?

Many companies have adopted formal 360-degree feedback programs. (The term "360-degree feedback" refers to a process of obtaining feedback, typically through anonymous questionnaires, from those all around you in the organization: bosses, peers, and direct reports.) Executives and managers in those companies may not relish the experience of receiving feedback from their staffs, but they certainly learn a lot. By paying attention to the feedback, leaders can make significant improvements in their effectiveness.

Using a consultant

What can you do if your company doesn't provide such a program? You can of course hire a consultant to collect the information for you. There are advantages to having an expert gather the information, interpret it for you, and guide you in deciding what to do about it.

For example, when I collect feedback for clients I use interviews rather than questionnaires. By probing for details and gathering specific examples of leadership behaviors, I am able to draw out a more detailed picture of the executive's strengths and developmental needs.

Doing it yourself

Using a consultant is not absolutely necessary. For adventuresome leaders, getting their own feedback can be a challenging and rewarding experience. Assuming you're already getting feedback from your boss (and if you're not, why haven't you asked for it?), feedback from your staff will be particularly useful.

Here are the steps

Exploring feedback with your staff

Here's a way to get more input from your staff as a group while maintaining their anonymity.

1. Before the meeting, post on a flipchart the key questions
   you have about the feedback. For example, "Can you give examples of my being overly authoritarian?"
2. At the meeting, first review the feedback. Then post the questions you prepared. Ask the group to answer your questions while you're out of the room. Have them write their answers on a flip chart.
3. When you return, have them review their answers with you. Ask questions for clarification only. Listen! Don't be defensive!
4. Thank them for their input.

Here is a simplified step-by-step approach to getting staff feedback.

• Announce to your staff your intention to develop your leadership skills.
  Tell them one way you're going to do this is to collect their perceptions of your leadership skills. Anonymously. This last point is critical to ensure honest responses.
• Find or create a suitable questionnaire.
  Talk to human resource specialists, colleagues, or consultants to locate a questionnaire that deals with the leadership skills or behaviors you want to survey. Most forms include questions with rating scales that cover the basic leadership behaviors. If you don't find a form that works for you, make up a simple questionnaire. Either way, consider adding some open-ended questions at the end:
  • What does my boss do that helps me do my job as well as possible?
  • What does my boss do that gets in the way of my doing my job as well as possible?
• Find a person to compile the results.
  Find someone to whom completed questionnaires can be sent for compilation. Ideally, this will be someone outside the organization to ensure staff member's anonymity (some employees worry that an insider will recognize their handwriting). Include a pre-addressed and stamped envelope with the questionnaire.
• Review the feedback.
  Take a deep breath and see what you've got. Look first at your high scores - your strengths-and take satisfaction in what you're doing well. Then examine the low scores and notice where you could do better. Be alert to the all-too-human tendency to be defensive-to deny the feedback, or see it as flawed or mistaken. Remember the one-percent rule: Even if you're absolutely convinced that any given piece of feedback is completely off-base-assume at least one percent of it is true.
• Meet with your staff.
  Review the feedback with your staff (see sidebar). Ask them for elaboration or examples on any feedback that's not clear. Listen, and take it in. Whatever you do, don't be defensive or attempt to explain away the feedback. You could end up doing more harm than good.

• Decide what to work on.
  Pick two or three significant areas where you're willing to make changes. Set goals for the changes you want to make, and periodically monitor your progress. Tell your staff what you've decided to work on (they'll love you for it!), and ask for their support.

Getting feedback is a powerful tool for learning. Although there may be some short term discomfort involved, I know of no better way to begin the process of sharpening your skills as a leader.

New Tricks For Old Dogs: When The Boss Is Asked To Change

As I spend time with leaders in various organizations, it has become clear to me that many leaders are being asked to do something extraordinarily difficult: to give up the leadership style that got them to where they are, and to adopt a new, less familiar one. Two recent examples illustrate the point.

Frank: "Command and control"

The vice president of marketing for a major global corporation, Frank (not his real name) had acquired the smoothness of style that comes from years of dealing with customers and other executives. It took a while, but after we discussed a consulting project, Frank opened up and lamented about his situation.

Frank had joined his company more than twenty-five years ago when an aggressive, take-no-prisoners management style was the norm. He thrived in this environment and advanced rapidly. In recent years, however, his company had adopted a new leadership framework. The "command and control" style that fit Frank so well, was to be replaced. "Control," "direction," and "demands" were out. "Teamwork," "participation" and "empowerment" were in.

Frank was given a brochure outlining the desired new leadership behaviors and he was expected to fall into line. (We chuckled at the irony of top management implementing the new leadership model using old-style methods.) What's more, every two years he was to undergo an upward feedback process, in which his direct reports would evaluate him against the desired new behaviors.

Intellectually Frank could appreciate the value of the new behaviors; in his gut he resisted the idea of changing his style. Could he overcome all those years of conditioning? Did he even want to?

Phil: "Don't re-engineer me"

The CEO of a mid-sized company I worked with recently is as brusque and unpolished as Frank is smooth. Let's call him Phil. In the process of interviewing Phil's reports for a team development effort, I learned that many had difficulty with Phil's abrasive style. Over and over, I would hear comments like, "Phil cuts me off" and "He doesn't really listen," or "Phil doesn't want to hear bad news." When we met to review the feedback, Phil displayed the very behavior his team was concerned about, cutting me off more than once. "I have no interest in being re-engineered!" he thundered.

Can Frank and Phil, and their numerous counterparts in other organizations, shed their old styles which have served them so well, and take on new and unfamiliar behaviors? Should they even try?

The choices

As a leader who has been asked to change, whether by the boss, your peers, or by your reports, what do you do? Here are three basic strategies to choose from:

1. Pretend to go along. You can give lip service to the changes ("I know this will be difficult, but I'll do my best," said in your most sincere voice), knowing full well you don't really intend to change.
2. Admit that you're unwilling to change. You can be totally honest, and tell people you just don't think you're willing to make the requested changes.
3. Commit to making changes. You can make a genuine commitment to change.

Let's explore these options in more detail. Option 1, pretending, is tricky. You may figure you'll get some points for a modest effort, and that eventually the push for you to change will go away. But people are pretty smart about recognizing whether or not a change effort is genuine. Saying you'll do something and then not delivering can cost you trust and credibility. If you haven't done so already, you can easily develop a reputation for political gamesmanship. Your ability to get the best from others will suffer.

How about Option 2, admitting you won't change? This one takes courage. It requires bucking the trend, being willing to take the heat from boss, peers, or reports. You'll have to accept that some of your working relationships won't improve. But if you honestly feel you can't or won't change, and you can take the pressure, this option may be for you. (But be careful about thinking or saying you can't change. Most of us are capable of making change, given enough motivation and time. When you say you can't, more likely you don't want to change.)

However, each of the first two options has an additional downside: the possibility of limiting your career. Do you want to risk being seen as an organizational dinosaur who can't or won't evolve?

And Option 3? This may be the toughest option, but ultimately the most rewarding. If you can be successful in making visible changes in your behavior, you will have gained the respect of those you work with, and undoubtedly will have enhanced your ability to gain others' cooperation. At the same time, you'll likely be improving your leadership potential.

How to make the changes

Suppose you decide to make some changes. What does it take? How do you go about it?

As in the old joke about how many therapists it takes to change a light bulb (only one, but the bulb has to want to change), you must have a genuine desire to alter your behavior. But that's not all. You will also need:

• A plan. Choose no more than two or three specific behaviors you want to change. An example might be: "Let people finish before I jump in." Trying to change too many things at once is destined to fail.
• A way to monitor the plan. We're often poor judges of the progress we've made, so you'll need a source of feedback to tell you how you're doing. This could be your boss, a peer, or your staff. It's usually a good idea to tell your staff what you're working on, and ask for their assistance in making the changes.

Coaching can help

For many of us, changing deeply ingrained behaviors can be stressful, and may require re-examining long-held beliefs and assumptions about yourself and others. A skilled in-house Human Resources or Organization Development professional, or an external coach (see accompanying article, "Getting the Best from an Executive Coach") can provide the necessary support and encouragement, and help you to overcome any remaining barriers to change.

What should you do if you're one of those leaders who is asked to change? It's up to you.

Nearing Retirement? It’s Time to Be Creative

By HARRIET EDLESON

FOR Phyllis Edelman, 61, dog-walking was the answer.

For Ron Walker, it was postponing retirement until 68, while defying the conventional wisdom to delay taking Social Security until age 70.

For others, it could be moving, taking in a boarder, seeking age-friendly employers or turning a hobby into a business.

Continue reading on The New York Times

Executives In Retirement; A Nonprofit Niche

By LINDA KESLAR

''I DIDN'T think I would do well full-time on the golf course or cocktail circuit,'' said A. C. Viebranz, who now finds himself infrequently in either milieu.

Instead, at the age of 63, Mr. Viebranz is well into his second career, as assistant to the director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington. ''This is a dream job, if there is such a thing,'' he said.

Continue reading on The New York Times.

Even at the Top, Making Plans for Life’s ‘Third Chapter’

By HARRIET EDLESON

WHEN Sherry Lansing, the former chairwoman of Paramount Pictures, decided to end a 40-year career in the rough-and-tumble of Hollywood, the question she faced was where to direct all the energy and drive that had propelled her to the top of the industry.

Lounging about in the suburbs of Los Angeles at age 60 was not going to be an option. So instead, she turned her attention to medical research — cancer research in particular, a subject that had taken hold of her years earlier when her mother died of ovarian cancer at age 64.

“For me, it’s something I always had inside of me, something I always wanted to do,” Ms. Lansing said. Acting on that passion, she started the Sherry Lansing Foundation, which funds cancer research, about 10 years ago, and is a member of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which promotes stem cell research.

Continue reading on The New York Times.