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Feedback

CEO Quotes

by Ron Potter May 26, 2022

I came across an interesting article the other day that talked about the important work of a CEO.

This particular CEO wanted to develop a particular type of platform and started the development in his living room. Today, over 830 million people from around the world are members and use the platform regularly.

In the article, this CEO states that he could not have had success without the help of his friends. He says that “friends will be absolutely central to your sense of happiness, connection and meaning.”

Most people would assume he experiences happiness through his success in business. He says happiness comes from the connection of friends, regardless of financial success. Following are four lessons he learned from his friends.

Appreciate Other Perspectives

Early in his career, one of his colleagues stated that he seem to know nothing about how women thought and acted. He realized there was an entire perspective of the world around him that he knew nothing about. He asked his colleague to help him out. His reaction was, “When there’s something important you don’t know, real friends will tell you about it.”

Realizing Your Purpose

Soon after leaving college, he was grappling with the question of “What do I want to do with my life?” Again, another friend said, “Don’t sit there feeling like you don’t know what to do. Go do something.”

I’ve mentioned in previous blogs that many people don’t do anything because they don’t feel qualified. Notice the quote above. It doesn’t say go get qualified to do something, but go do something! I had three major careers in my 40 years of business. I didn’t feel qualified to do any of them, I just started. If I had waited or worked at becoming qualified, it’s likely I wouldn’t have accomplished any of the three.

Saying “No” to Yes Men

Here is what the CEO is quoted saying: “We all seek validation or approval in one way or another. While it’s good to have friends that support what you do, it’s more important to have friends that can tell you the truth, even if it may hurt.” He also says, “Friends will tell you not what you want to hear, but that you need to hear.”

Helping Your Friends Help You

The CEO says that the most important lesson is that “Your friends help you the most by letting you help them.”

That CEO is Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn. I don’t know Reed and I have never worked for Linkedin, but I’m going to trust that Reed not only believes but lives these lessons.

I did consult for a multi-billion dollar firm several years back. The CEO used much of that same language. However, he thought of himself as a teacher. He didn’t need to learn these things, he needed to teach others. I watched as he would meet with people below his direct reports to impart these wisdoms. However, with his direct reports, he acted as if he knew it all and didn’t need that “friend” described above. His direct reports never cared for him and his tenure with that company was short-lived.

These are great quotes from Reid. Just make sure they apply to everyone in your life. You may have worked for three or four decades but that brand new employee is capable of asking the question that helps you. Apply it to friends, family, and others that you encounter along the way. You’ll learn and grow from each encounter.

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Disagree without Anger

by Ron Potter September 2, 2021

“Just because I disagree with you doesn’t mean I hate you. We need to relearn that in our society.” – Morgan Freeman

Why are good friends able to disagree without getting angry? They spent time getting to know each other first.

First Rate Stupidity

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” F. Scott Fitzgerald.

You’ve seen me use this quote several times but always with the focus on the positive results of being able to hold opposing ideas at the same time.

Let me reverse that for this blog:

“First-rate stupidity is holding on to a single idea or philosophy without allowing others to share their point of view that may be different from your own.”

It’s OK to Disagree

I believe this is what Morgan Freeman was referring to when he said that it’s OK to disagree without hating each other. I’m afraid that our society has fallen into this trap of not allowing different points of view to penetrate our own belief system. I’m sure there are several reasons for this, including social media, politics, news media. I get very concerned when we begin to understand how some large tech firms send us to websites and posts they believe fit our profile and seldom show us the opposing view. This is not healthy!

Listen to all points of view

Years ago I was working with a CEO who believed that he listened to everyone on his team equally so that it encouraged all points of view. As I watched him work with his team for the first time I saw him put this philosophy into practice. He did indeed ask every individual on his team to give their input on certain topics so that they could see all points of view. However, I began to observe an interesting pattern in his questioning.

If someone on his team put out a point of view that didn’t agree with his thinking, he very sincerely thanked them for the input with no further comment. He would then move onto the next person on the team and ask for their viewpoint. If that team member seemed to voice a point of view that agreed with the CEO’s thinking he would also sincerely thank them for their input but would then reinforce their thinking because that was what he believed as well. When he was finished asking for input from each team member, it was clear to me and clear to the team which point of view he agreed with and which one he didn’t.

The team had gotten used to this “vetting ” of ideas and the ones who disagreed with the CEO simply went silent about their point of view and moved forward with the team in an effort to execute the CEO’s point of view as successfully as possible. Not the best use of team diversity.

Trusted Feedback

When the CEO and I were alone, I pointed out my observation. He was appalled at his own behavior. He really didn’t intend to shut off different points of view and didn’t realize that his behavior was doing exactly that. I’ve mentioned many times in previous blogs that I’ve met few leaders who didn’t have the best intentions. However, their behavior didn’t match those intents.

This is why feedback in the moment is so important. It can come from a coach like myself but we aren’t there on a regular and consistent basis. Everyone must cultivate trusted relationships they depend on to give them straight feedback in the moment that doesn’t really match their intent.

Take stock

How many of those relationships do you actually have? If you honestly believe you have many, good for you! It will make you a better leader and team member in the long run. If you have difficulty thinking of anyone who actually fills that role for you or if you’re concerned that the feedback they give you is intended to protect themselves or make you feel better about your behavior, watch out. You haven’t developed the kind of trusting relationships you need to be successful and satisfied in life.

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Blog Culture

The Power of Positive Feedback

by Ron Potter April 30, 2020

I received a note a couple of days ago telling me how one of my posts had positively affected a person’s life. They mentioned a post I had written nine years ago. Was I really writing blog posts nine years ago? That surprised me. My second response was that I didn’t remember that blog. I had to go back and read it.

We were never allowed to be Victims.

That blog ends with a quote from Condoleezza Rice explaining how she made it from being a young girl of color in the South to being Secretary of State of the United States. The headline above is her quote. She was calm, confident and yet very humble. She was an amazing person.

Easy to become Victims

In this pandemic that we’re all experiencing, it’s easy to feel like the victim. It’s interesting to note that we’re already seeing the results of feeling like victims. Our obesity levels and alcohol rates are already climbing. We’re looking for an escape from feeling like victims.

As that blog noted from nearly ten years ago, the opposite of the victim is creativity.

Be Creative

Almost everyone I’ve talked with recently speaks to how lethargic they’re feeling. They just can’t seem to get motivated. I’ve experienced the same issues. But as I mentioned in my last post, deep thought and creativity are the paths to feeling better under trying circumstances. Just like exercise, which has tremendous benefits if you’ll just spend about 30-60 minutes at least three times per week, spending at least an hour in deep thought and reflection three times per week will increase your creativity. You’ll feel so much better and think about your circumstances so differently, you’ll come out the other end being a much better and maybe totally different person.

This pandemic is very victimizing. Don’t let it get you down. Be creative. Spend some time in deep thought and self-reflection every week. View this as an opportunity that seldom happens more than once in anyone’s lifetime.

Positive Feedback

So what does this have to do with positive feedback? Reading that comment about how my blog made a positive difference in one person’s life motivates me! I was having difficulty keeping up with my blog. I just couldn’t find the motivation. And then that comment arrived. I’ve been writing blogs almost every day since that feedback.

Positive feedback made a difference. It only takes one. In the nine years since I wrote that blog, I’ve written somewhere between 400 and 500 blog posts. Did they all make a difference? Probably not. Did I hear some positive feedback on many of them? No. Did positive feedback on less than one percent of the bogs I’ve written make a difference? Absolutely!

Pass on some positive feedback today. It may be to that neighbor who just happened to wave “hi”. It may be to someone at work where you’re trying to conduct virtual business.

Just give some positive feedback. It makes a difference.

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Blog Trust Me

Getting Effective Feedback

by Ron Potter July 2, 2018

Can your team speak freely?

Leadership today is all about two words: It’s all about truth and trust.

When they trust you, you’ll get truth. And if you get truth, you get speed. If you get speed, you’re going to act. That’s how it works.

You and others are willing to work long and hard to accomplish goals. However, as we’ve seen from the stories in recent posts, our efforts can become very scattered and focused on the “urgent.” We need to build accurate, open, reliable feedback systems.

A team leader needs to create a learning environment in which every team member is appreciated, listened to, and respected. In this kind of environment, the opinions of team members are fully explored and understood and are incorporated into the decision-making process. The team actively learns from all members who express their positions and opinions, and as a result, the team is stronger and more efficient.

In the end it will be the ability to endure through the challenges, criticisms, and doubts that distinguishes the great leaders. But if you have staked your reputation on a wrong or unachievable goal, enduring through the challenges will only take your team or organization down the wrong path. What keeps you from that wrong path is good solid feedback. But good solid feedback is hard to come by, especially the higher you climb in an organization.

The power of effective feedback

People don’t like to give the boss bad news or news that doesn’t agree with the boss’s stated position. But without it comes only failure.

Effective Feedback. It’s not just something you ask for. It’s a cherished gift. It’s a wonderful reward for building a trusting organization or team.

An effective feedback apparatus starts with humility. Humble leaders create an atmosphere where feedback from others is desired and honestly requested. Leaders who are focused on growing their people build that growth on feedback. When people know that a leader is committed and wants honest feedback to help reach stated goals, they are more likely to provide the open and honest feedback required. Compassion, integrity, peacemaking—upcoming chapters that will all lead to an atmosphere and culture that is open to and thrives on honest and timely feedback.

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Blog Culture

ABC or DEF. Which Grade do you receive?

by Ron Potter June 7, 2018

Based on our grades from school most of us are going to think that ABC is probably the place we want to be. However, that does not apply to this set of circumstances. In this case, I define ABC as Always Blaming and Complaining.

ABC.

What do you hear from the ABC crowd? Blaming.

blaming others
blaming circumstances
blaming family situations
blaming traffic situations.

Plenty of blame to go around. They never seem to hold themselves unaccountable.

Along with blaming, complaining is a very close relative. Complaining about the circumstances that they seem to have no control over.

One of my favorite adages through the years is something called The Serenity Prayer.

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

With the complainers, everything seems to fall into the “I cannot change” category but there is no serenity. There is a lack of courage to identify and change the things that are possible to change.

In many cases, they seem to want to accomplish great things or tackle some new entrepreneurial endeavor. But the first thing out of their mouth is complaining about why that’s not going to happen.

Government regulations are going to keep them from succeeding
Nobody will listen to them
Investors won’t invest in them

Always blaming and complaining is not where you want to be.

DEF.

DEF stands for Dependable, Effective, and Friendly.

Being dependable means doing the things that you have committed to do. It has as much to do with integrity as it does anything else.

When you commit to something
When you agree to something
When you say you will do something

Do it!

Can people depend on you? People figure that out quickly. If they can’t depend on you:

They’ll stop turning to you
You’ll do less and less work over the time (becoming expendable)
Those who are dependable get more and more assigned to them because they can be counted on.
Over time, this causes great disruption within organizations.

Are you effective? We all tackle our work, both individually and in teams, but how effective are you?

All kinds of issues can come into play here. One is perfectionism.

Do you have to have everything absolutely perfect? Does everything have to be perfect before you release it? Perfectionism usually gets to a self-esteem issue and really doesn’t do the organization any good. Do the work that you need to do. Figure out what’s important. Stay focused on those key important issues and be effective at what you accomplish.

Friendly. This may sound a little out of place here, but one interesting experiment I run with teams is titled The Perception Exercise.

I share one list of characteristics with half the team and another list with the other half. Once they’ve each observed their list, and understood it, I start asking them about the characteristics of this individual.

Are they dependable?
Are they effective?
Are they honest?
Are they trustworthy?
Will they be successful in life?
Do you want them on your team?

And one half of the team typically scores that individual much lower than the other half. The interesting difference is that the lists are identical in terms of characteristics, except for one word.

One list contains the word warm. “This tends to be a warm individual.”

The other list contains the word cold. “This tends to be a cold individual.”

Those two words, whether we perceive the person to be warm or cold, friendly or not, shapes our whole view of their performance, contribution and future success. We even decide if we want them as part of our team or not. Psychologists tell us that we will make a warm or cold judgment in the first 15 seconds of meeting a person.

Sometimes it’s very difficult to figure out where we are ourselves, and we need to get some feedback on this. But quite honestly, I believe that if you are very thoughtful, intentful and honest with yourself, you can decide whether you fall more on the ABC side or the DEF side. Keep in mind that if you fall on the ABC, always blaming and complaining, you may be attempting to avoid some immediate pain, but in the long term, none of that will lead to success or happiness in your life. However, if you’re one of those people who fall on the DEF side of the scale, dependable, effective, friendly, we can predict with good accuracy much more long-term happiness and success and productivity in your life.

Give yourself a grade, see where you come out on this one.

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Blog Leadership

You’re About to Get Fired

by Ron Potter May 25, 2017

Clients have asked me to deliver that message. I’m often seen as the last chance to correct a leadership issue that has derailed a leader. On one hand, they see me as an investment in trying to save the leader. On the other hand, they’re hiring me to deliver the message that wasn’t heard: “Either change or lose your job.”

A few times I’ve had the opportunity to look back over several performance reviews. I’ve found it fascinating that the issue is always there, in writing, in past reviews. Why wasn’t the message heard?

“Why hasn’t anyone told me this before?” This is the response that I always hear. They just heard from me that they may lose their job and they’re shocked. “Nobody ever told them before!” When I point out that I see the issue in their performance reviews they still seemed shocked. “Yes, it’s there, but I didn’t know it was that bad.”

Bill Benjamin with IHHP speaks to this issue in a course called “Difficult Conversations” as part of “the Performing Under Pressure series”.

Here is a distinct pattern we see over and over again in the leadership development training programs we run: when leaders face a difficult conversation, a feedback conversation or a performance review, most cover 85, 90 or 92% of the content of what they want to say in the conversation, but a funny thing happens when they get to the more difficult part of the conversation, what we call the Last 8%. When they hit this part of the conversation—where there are consequences to what they are saying—they start to notice that the other person is becoming more anxious and (because emotions are infectious) they themselves become more anxious.

It is at this stage when many, out of anxiety, avoid the last 8% of the conversation and never tell the other person the entire feedback they have for them. The conversation ends and both individuals leave thinking they had the full conversation. Of course, they never did.

Yet neither fully comprehends it. First, the person on the receiving end can’t read the leaders mind and so walks away thinking they had the full conversation. The leader thinks they talked about most of what they wanted to talk about and deludes themselves into thinking they had the full conversation.

That description of the missing 8% explained a lot. The leader would always say to me, “Of course I talked to them about the issue. I made it very clear they needed to correct this.” The receiver would always say to me, “Why didn’t anyone tell me this before? Why didn’t they make it clear to me?”

The last 8%. Are you finishing your conversations? Are you pushing through to the end? Does the other person understand? Just because you said it doesn’t mean you communicated it. Did the other person hear you? Do they understand the gravity of the situation?

By not finishing the feedback you may be avoiding pain and suffering at the moment. But the future pain and suffering far outweigh avoidance. Avoidance of pain and suffering leads to mental illness. That’s what Dr. Scott Peck taught us in his book The Road Less Traveled.

Don’t avoid. Persevere.

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Blog Culture

I had a great day today… I got criticized

by Ron Potter April 20, 2017

Those are the words of Dr. Hank Weisinger co-author of the book Performing Under Pressure. On his blog, he writes about dealing with pressure by dealing with criticism.

When receiving criticism, we experience emotion. Emotions such as:

feeling hurt
anger
dejection
disappointment
resentfulness

These and other emotions are natural. But, if we’re good at evaluating our emotions we will be better at dealing with the pressure.

Dr. Weisinger suggests 4 steps to deal with criticism more productively.

Increase your receptivity to criticism

You can’t use criticism to your advantage if you are not going to at least listen to it. Align your definition of criticism with its historical helpful intent by programming yourself with the thought “criticism is information that can help me grow.” The more you internalize this thought, the less likely you will respond to criticism with defensiveness, anger, and hurt.

Appraise the criticism

Being receptive to criticism gives you the opportunity to evaluate what you are being told and to decide whether it is in your best interest to act upon it. High performers use multiple criteria to help them decide:

How important is the information to my life/job?
Is the source of the criticism credible?
Do other people agree with the criticism?
How much effort is required to respond productively?
What are the benefits to me?

The real value in appraising the criticism using these criteria is that it slows down your response and minimizes the chances that you will dismiss criticism impulsively when it fact, it could be very helpful.

Acknowledge your appraisal

High performers show respect and appreciation to their critics by sharing how they evaluated the criticism provided. This often leads to a productive exchange of viewpoints, and often in the case of high performers, new insights are gleaned that lead him or her to agree with their critic.

Take action

What if the criticism is valid —it’s in your best interest to act upon it? If this is the case, high performers distinguish themselves by taking steps to make sure they make the necessary changes/improvements that the criticism demands.

I’ve referred to Dr. Weisinger’s book often when helping clients deal with pressure. Dealing with criticism reduces the pressure and helps us become better leaders.

Enjoy your day. Enjoy the criticism.

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Absurd!Blog In-Depth Book Reviews

Absurd!: We Want Not What We are Missing, but More of What We Already Have

by Ron Potter February 6, 2017

Feedback. That word alone strikes fear in some and appreciation in others. The word was originally coined during the early days of rocketry. When the rocket scientist pioneers were trying to figure out how to design, build and fly rockets, they quickly found that they could generate enough thrust to make the rockets fly. What they couldn’t do was hit a target. They had to spend more time and brain power developing what they termed “feedback systems” so they could adjust the thrusters to hit the desired target.

If you look around any corporate team, thrust is not usually the problem. There is enough education, experience and drive to accomplish almost any goal. The problem is aligning all of that thrust to hit the desired target. Feedback is needed.

So why do we resist or ignore feedback? Farson tells us “One study shows that people wanted for themselves not something that was missing in them and that others might think important to them to have – but more of what was already their special attribute. When people described what they wanted for themselves, they seldom mentioned qualities that others would later suggest were missing from their personality or performance.”

Leadership teams are filled with people who have been good at what they do. It’s their expertise, knowledge, and productivity that has rewarded them through the years and brought them to a leadership role. The problem is that leadership requires trust, influence, and alignment of goals. Farson puts it this way “The difficulty for all of us is that our absorption with what we do well may blind us to what will enable us to do even better. The particular challenge for managers is to remain mindful that organizations can set themselves up for trouble when they rely solely on the things they are already doing well and fail to see what they really need to do.”

We seldom need feedback on our technical skills or expertise. We need feedback to get better at leadership which includes building trust, aligning goals and creating a commitment to the overall good of the team and company.

Feedback is required to hit a target. What’s your target? Are you soliciting the needed feedback?

I’m continuing my series on an in-depth look at a wonderful little book that’s twenty years old this year. The title is Management of the Absurd by Richard Farson. You may want to consider dropping back and reading the previous blog posts about ABSURD! I think it will put each new one in great context.

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Blog Team

What Would Jack Welch Do?

by Ron Potter June 9, 2016

Rich Hill is a friend, colleague and mentor of mine. Along with being a great consultant and coach to many recognizable companies, Rich was also the Executive Director of the Dow Leadership Center at Hillsdale College and the Director of Human Resources for General Electric Plastics when Jack Welch took over the division. In essence, he was one of Jack’s first HR directors.

Rich dropped me this note the other day:

I really like the post on Mentally Ill Teams. How many times have I seen these dynamics exist in my many years of work with organizations? The point of “The attempt to avoid the suffering simply causes more and deeper suffering” is so true.

Rich goes on to talk about a process he titled “Contracting for Change”. Notice a couple of elements of the process as he explains it:

One of the key elements in the process was putting charts up on the wall for each team player with three columns:

Things I should do more of/or better

Things I should do less of

Things I do well and should not change.

Each chart had additional columns to assess the Priority of each response relative to Top Priority or secondary Priority. Each of the other team players were given tags to write on for each of the three elements. Feedback!

Once all the feedback tags were up on each person’s chart the entire team moves to a given chart and the owner of that chart first suggests what the comment means to him or her and then asks for individual clarification of the statements – such as

Can you give me a specific example?

Where have you seen this characteristic in play?

We used these clarification statements especially if the owner’s interpretation didn’t quite square with the person who put the tag point up. This approach assures better mutual understanding by all members of the team.

Rich goes on to explain the next step of prioritization on the Do More Of and Do Less Of columns only done by all other team members, not the person’s own chart.

But I think the next step was the most powerful:

The next step deals with negotiating the key items on given charts to enhance both individual and team effectiveness (emphasis mine). If successful, the final understanding is put into a written contract between the parties. 90 days out we reconvene the teams and go over contracts to see how much progress was made. I used it with several organizations and always got good results.
As you can imagine there was some suffering as a result of the clarity of issues between people, but it often led to good results.

I don’t really know what Jack Welch would do in this case, but I do know what one of his first HR directors would do. Working with executives at the level where Rich worked probably made the statement “some suffering” a bit of an understatement. But the power of feedback and dealing with the direct pain and suffering cannot be denied or overlooked as a powerful tool for leadership and team improvement.

Thanks Rich, I really appreciate the time you took to send some feedback.

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Blog Culture

Forcing Trust too Quickly

by Ron Potter December 24, 2015

I’ve seen the full spectrum through the years of those who trust until the trust is broken (the end of the spectrum that I sit on) and those who say no trust granted until it’s earned.

A recent Harvard Business Review, Management Tip of the Day listed “3 Mistakes to Avoid When Taking Over a Team.” The third tip was “Attempting to force trust too quickly. Until team members have had time to see how you handle uncomfortable topics too much candor will do more harm than good. Let trust build over time.” The word candor in the middle of that sentence caught my eye.

It’s not that you’re not trusting or offering trust, but don’t assume candor will be accepted with trust and appreciation until you’ve gained some trust. While I know this is sound advice and I usually follow it myself, I do remember one major incident where I tripped over this one.

I had been working in couple of different functional areas for a Fortune 200 company. An internal candidate had recently been promoted to VP of HR and with the recommendation of a few other corporate leaders, I was making an effort to get acquainted. During one of my first conversations with her she asked if I had any feedback for her, knowing that I had been working in the company for a while and knew of her in her previous role.

I remembered distinctly that I had this little twinge of doubt before I answered. Let me take the time and space right here to say “Always pay attention to that little twinge of doubt!”

When she made the initial request for feedback I came back with some general platitudes about working into the new position even though she was a known quantity in the corporation. She pressed for more.

While my twinge was turning into more of a twitch, she pursued with what felt like genuine sincerity about wanting feedback. So, in spite of that twitch now turning into a pit, I shared a couple of things that I had observed about her leadership skills. In all honesty I didn’t really think they were that much of an unknown to her and I also didn’t believe they were particularly harsh and damaging. But, you can see the rest of the story coming. The look on her face sent a very firm message that she didn’t care for that feedback and the meeting quickly ended.

My entire worth when working with a client is being able to share feedback with clients and I’ve discussed much more damaging feedback than I actually shared at that moment. But, I ALWAYS develop trust with my client first before sharing meaningful feedback. Well, almost always.

Always build trust first. No matter which end of the spectrum you’re on, always build the trust first before bringing in too much candor.

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Blog Trust Me

Team Feedback

by Ron Potter November 23, 2015

Source: Howard Lake, Creative Commons

The term feedback has an interesting origin. In the early days of rocketry, scientists found that in order to hit a target they had to devote more attention to building accurate, reliable, and frequent feedback mechanisms than they did to controlling thrust. Thrust was the easy part. Hitting the target was the hard part. It took feedback to maintain the ongoing focus required to achieve the goal.

Achievement in an organization is similar. Thrust is the easy part. You and others are willing to work long and hard to accomplish goals. However, as we’ve seen from past blog posts, our efforts can become very scattered and focused on the “urgent.” We need to build accurate, open, reliable feedback systems.

A team leader needs to create a learning environment in which every team member is appreciated, listened to, and respected. In this kind of environment, the opinions of team members are fully explored and understood and are incorporated into the decision-making process. The team actively learns from all members who express their positions and opinions, and as a result, the team is stronger and more efficient.

The principles of building a great team have an interesting pattern starting with humility and moving to endurance. In the end it will be the ability to endure through the challenges, criticisms, and doubts that distinguishes the great leaders. But if you have staked your reputation on a wrong or unachievable goal, enduring through the challenges will only take your team or organization down the wrong path. What keeps you from that wrong path is good solid feedback. But good solid feedback is hard to come by, especially the higher you climb in an organization. People don’t like to give the boss bad news or news that doesn’t agree with the boss’s stated position. But without it comes only failure.

Feedback. It’s not just something you ask for. It’s a cherished gift. It’s a wonderful reward for building a trusting organization or team.

An effective feedback apparatus starts with humility. Humble leaders create an atmosphere where feedback from others is desired and honestly requested. Leaders who are focused on growing their people build that growth on feedback. When people know that a leader is committed and wants honest feedback to help reach stated goals, they are more likely to provide the open and honest feedback required. Compassion, integrity, peacemaking—upcoming chapters that will all lead to an atmosphere and culture that is open to and thrives on honest and timely feedback.

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Blog Leadership

Feedback, Truth, and Trust: The Need for Speed

by Ron Potter November 5, 2015

Source: Alan Levine, Creative Commons

And what does Feedback, Truth and Trust have to do with speed?

In an interview with Daniel Roth, Executive Editor at LinkedIn, Jack Welch said

You always want your people to know where they stand. See, one of the things about appraisals for people, appraisals shouldn’t be every year. The world changed in a year, they’ve changed in a year. You’ve got to let them know, ‘Here’s what you’re doing right, here’s what you can do to improve’. And you’ve got to be on them all the time.”

Leadership today is all about two words: It’s all about truth and trust.

When they trust you, you’ll get truth. And if you get truth, you get speed. If you get speed, you’re going to act. That’s how it works.

Feedback

In earlier posts, I’ve talked about the origins of the word ‘feedback’ forming in the early days of rocket development when the pioneers built rockets with enough thrust but couldn’t hit a target. They had to spend more effort developing what they termed “feedback” so they could adjust the thrusters of the rockets and actually hit their target. Now think about that a minute. If they had waited until the rocket finished its flight, determined how far it had missed the target and then built corrections into the next flight, in the end, the process wouldn’t be very efficient.

But, that’s exactly what happens in many corporations today. Annual targets are set then checked at the dreaded annual review. Did the employee hit the target or not? No help along the way, no feedback mechanism adjusting the thrusters. No chance to make any mid-course adjustments or even agree that the target moved or changed.

Throw out the annual appraisals. Regular and frequent feedback sessions are the only way to get meaningful results and generate speed from your team.

Truth

Getting to the “truth” of the matter is difficult if you assume you know the truth and everyone else has their perspective (implying perspective is different from the truth). We all have different perspectives and part of building a great team is understanding that these perspectives are strong and powerful and formed by our experiences, beliefs, values, and goals. A humble leader understands that outstanding and highly effective people will often have different perspectives and it’s our jobs as leaders to get all those perspectives on the table, listen, learn, be curious and in the long run align our perspectives so we’re all pulling in the same direction.

Trust

Trust is the key element to all of this. Annual appraisals don’t build trust, regular feedback builds trust. Demanding that your perspective is the only true way of looking at an issue doesn’t build trust. Trust is built through humility, development, focus, commitment, compassion, integrity, peacemaking and endurance.

Speed

If you want your team to act effectively with speed, build trust. It’s the only fuel with enough energy to win the race.

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