Leadership feedback has a problem!
Leadership feedback has a problem. Daniel Goleman terms this problem as the CEO disease! Is feedback in leadership important? Do leaders get good feedback for their leadership growth?
No leader would argue against getting feedback from customers regarding their products or service. Leaders know that it is the only way to improve their offerings, keep up with the competition, and have loyal customers. However, with soliciting feedback for their own behaviors, leaders are not enthusiastic.
Feedback in leadership is not up to the mark.
Only arrogant leaders would avoid soliciting feedback. Wrong! I can understand how it would be easy to think that way. The fact remains that even the most humble and well-liked leaders fall prey to this bad habit. Not intentionally.
Not because they don’t want to hear the feedback. Not because they don’t care about employee feedback. Because of their assumption that as the team is open, honest, and functional, there is no need to ask for formal feedback on their performance.
They assume that as the team is open, they will share their feedback with the leader without soliciting it formally or informally. Is that a correct assumption? What do you think?
Do leaders get enough feedback for leadership improvement?
What happens to the quality and the quantity of feedback as you move up the career ladder? When I ask senior leaders, they say that they often get feedback from their team.
When I probe further, it is easy to discover that what they are talking about is feedback about business issues – and not about the leader’s behaviors.
If they do get some feedback on their behavior – let’s say the leader doesn’t listen to other’s ideas – it is usually indirect, vague, generalized, and watered down.
They avoid spelling out the ineffective behavior clearly and specifically.
Why is leadership feedback difficult?
Why? Most people are uncomfortable giving feedback to others to their faces. If the leader is powerful or perceived as arrogant, people are afraid of the repercussions of critical feedback. Even when the leader is well-liked and admired, team members, avoid criticism to hurt the leader’s feelings. They also think overall, the leader is doing a good job, so it is OK to hide feedback on some negative aspects. Consequently, top leaders only hear positive feedback. This eventually gets into their head, and they believe that they are the best leaders!
Read: Lessons for leaders: Henry Ford FAILURE story & bad leadership.
The CEO disease!
Daniel Goleman calls this problem of leadership feedback – the CEO disease. It is a paradox. The higher a leader’s position, the more is the importance of candid feedback. The higher the leader’s position, the less likely she will get the honest feedback needed for the leader’s improvement. Leaders have more trouble getting feedback than an average employee.
From a fire hose to a trickle!
A study by the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence confirms this. They studied one thousand employees in organizations. They classified the employees into three groups: first-level managers, mid-level managers, and senior managers. The senior managers consistently rated their own performance a lot higher than rated by their team members. This gap was lowest with the first-level managers, went up with the second level managers, and was the highest senior managers. As the employee moved up the career ladder, their self-awareness reduced, and their self-rating increased!
Any guesses why leadership feedback is reduced? It is because of the reduction in the quantity and quality of constructive feedback as they moved up the career ladder! The feedback at the level of a fire hose at lower levels turns into a trickle as the leader moves to the corporate ladder’s top rungs.
How do you overcome the CEO disease and get candid leadership feedback?
As people are uncomfortable sharing candid feedback with anyone, especially a top leader, the best way is to conduct a 360-degree assessment, aka multi-rater assessment. First, the feedback is anonymous. This allows the leader’s team members to open up. These team members include subordinates, boss or bosses, peers, and sometimes vendors or customers. Second, an external agency conducts it. This helps overcome the pre-conceived notions or biases that may exist internally. Finally, 360-degree feedback generates a lot of data. An experienced coach can help the leader generate actionable insights from the mountain of data.
Read: What Got You Here Won’t Get You There-Marshall Goldsmith-Book summary.
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