Feedback: Breakfast of Champions

The title of this article is borrowed directly from Stephen Haines. He’s one of the fathers of modern strategic planning, and one of the great thrills of my career was spending a week with him in his strategic planning workshop.

Why is feedback the breakfast of champions? Because you can best manage what you measure, and feedback rightly done can be a very good measure of whether you’re succeeding as a leader. In fact, leaders who solicit feedback regularly tend to be more successful over time, and leaders who don’t tend to be less successful over time.

Tips to get the most advantage from feedback (especially negative feedback):

·         The situation I’m describing is when you have more power than the people giving you feedback. They have every reason to be extremely cautious about being honest with you because you have great power over their future.

·         Positive feedback is great, but nobody likes getting negative feedback. What you do next after receiving negative feedback is very important.

·         If you use your frustration to punish the people who gave you the negative feedback (kill the messenger), then they’ll stop giving you honest feedback.

·         If you use your frustration to go into a “victim” position in which you behave as if everyone is being “mean” to you, then they’ll stop giving you honest feedback.

·         Not all feedback is created equal, e.g., some people are angry and will use the feedback to vent their stored anger and “get you back” for perceived injustices.

·         One of the limitations of anonymous feedback is that you may care more about what some people think than others.

·         With this in mind, choose who you solicit feedback from carefully.

·         Look for a convergence of opinions/trends that justify your attention, e.g., if two thirds of the people in your team say the building is dark and depressing, then investigate some better lighting options.

And always remember, breakfast is the most important meal of the day!

Don’t be a stranger. (770) 993-1129. tdockery@TheResolveFirm.com