Ed Koch, Mayor of New York City from the late 70’s to late 80’s, famously opened his press conferences with "How'm I doing?" He was the first really public person who had an open feedback loop. Today this lives on within Amazon reviews, Yelp, customer feedback surveys and so forth.
It's important when getting feedback to listen. As I try to be a better listener, I'm also trying to ask more of "How'm I doing?" Regardless of the answer, I need to listen. I need to seek to understand what is being said and give a good reaction. I may not be able to solve every issue, but understanding means a lot.
Here are some things that I do and have done to get some answers to "How'm I doing?"
Send a survey - Use SurveyMonkey.com to create anonymous surveys. Responses are not always that honest, but it's important to be consistent (end-of-year, quarterly). It's also important to send back a general response to the survey takers. Be transparent. Don't just show the results, but thank people for their honesty and appreciate what they have done. This shows you are listening.
Start with your own problem - Start any feedback meeting (or retrospective for that matter) with volunteering information of how you can be better. For instance, "My communication during that last project was horrible. I need to do a better job with that. Thankfully I have a great team who backed me up."
Reward and encourage negative feedback - The most useful feedback is not "you're great," but "you stink!" Of course getting a reason of why “you stink” is more helpful, but sometimes it's hard to get to the root of that. Regardless, the person who is telling you what you are doing wrong is going to improve you the most. They should be rewarded and recognized so that you get more honest feedback. Don’t take anything negative personally. If we don’t know our weaknesses, how can we possibly grow?
Here are some good links for this week:
Stop racing to the bottom - http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-to-beat-a-lower-priced-competitor/
It's important when getting feedback to listen. As I try to be a better listener, I'm also trying to ask more of "How'm I doing?" Regardless of the answer, I need to listen. I need to seek to understand what is being said and give a good reaction. I may not be able to solve every issue, but understanding means a lot.
Here are some things that I do and have done to get some answers to "How'm I doing?"
Send a survey - Use SurveyMonkey.com to create anonymous surveys. Responses are not always that honest, but it's important to be consistent (end-of-year, quarterly). It's also important to send back a general response to the survey takers. Be transparent. Don't just show the results, but thank people for their honesty and appreciate what they have done. This shows you are listening.
Start with your own problem - Start any feedback meeting (or retrospective for that matter) with volunteering information of how you can be better. For instance, "My communication during that last project was horrible. I need to do a better job with that. Thankfully I have a great team who backed me up."
Reward and encourage negative feedback - The most useful feedback is not "you're great," but "you stink!" Of course getting a reason of why “you stink” is more helpful, but sometimes it's hard to get to the root of that. Regardless, the person who is telling you what you are doing wrong is going to improve you the most. They should be rewarded and recognized so that you get more honest feedback. Don’t take anything negative personally. If we don’t know our weaknesses, how can we possibly grow?
Here are some good links for this week:
Stop racing to the bottom - http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-to-beat-a-lower-priced-competitor/
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