Ask Your Employees to Give You Feedback

Ask Your Employees to Give You Feedback

Managers, your employees usually know where you need to improve. That’s valuable information for you to have as you keep growing and advancing — but are you encouraging your team to share it? Make it safe for employees to give you feedback. At team meetings, for example, you could take a moment to report on your recent work and ask people to rate your efforts. They may hesitate at first, but they’ll get more comfortable with it over time. You can also ask a candid direct report to be your coach. Meet regularly to request feedback, and be public about the commitment to show your sincerity. Whatever method you use, give examples of when you’ve gotten tough feedback in the past, to show it’s OK for employees to give it now. You might say, “I’ve heard from Marlon that I am often inaccessible because I spend a lot of time out of the office. I’m working on a plan to fix that. What else can I do to improve?” HBR