How to Get Employees to Give You Honest Feedback - globaladvisors.biz/inc-feed/20141214/how-to-get-employees-to-give-you-honest-feedback/ By Will Yakowicz As the CEO, its hard to get anyone to tell you how you really truly come across. Find out how to turn the brown-nosers into truth-tellers. IMAGE: Getty Images You have employees who will tell you when you have mayonnaise on your chin, but do you have any who will tell you your leadership methods make you come off as an inconsiderate jerk? Its difficult to get any real feedback as the CEO. Every employee is going to lie to you and tell you how effective your motivational speech was during the Q4 meeting and how things have really turned around after the big reorganization. Who has the nerve to tell the CEO that she doesnt listen or gets defensive when her initiatives dont produce the needed results? Peter Bregman, an author and executive coach, writes in Harvard Business Review about how to elicit truthful feedback from your staff. If youre hurting the company through certain actions or attitudes, you need to find out. So how do you get flatterers to be honest? Check out Bregmans suggestions below. Be explicit about the need for honesty To get people to tell the truth, you need to push them to be honest. Itll be hard for them to let their guard down, but make them comfortable and frame it as them doing a favour for you, Bregman says. Dont be nice. Be helpful, he suggests you tell them. Impress upon your employees that you need to get the most out of their feedback and that they shouldnt hold back. Frame the conversation around the future Its easier for your employees to speak about what hasnt happened yet--your future behavior. Bregman says if you ask what you can do better going forward instead of asking what youve screwed up in the past, theyll be more forthcoming. He says people will be more at ease and will be more honest while telling you how to be more effective. Dig deeper Unless your employees are used to this kind of honest feedback, youre going to need to probe them a few times. Asking once is not enough. Give people multiple opportunities to give you real feedback, to increase the chances theyll feel comfortable doing so, Bregman says. Break down certain situations and ask about specific instances you want feedback on. Eventually, they will start to give you a stream of honest opinions about particular scenarios that will help you get more insight on your leadership. Listen, but dont judge The second your brow furrows, the employee will stop being honest with you. Do not place any judgement on the feedback, just listen to both the positive and negative. Make sure to thank them for their honesty, especially when it hurts. The more they see youre reacting positively, the more honest theyll be. Do not be defensive--once you start making excuses, they will stop and start giving you the fluff. Write it all down The act of writing it down is not only so you remember, it also helps to create silences. Bregman says if you write down what they say, there will be some time between when they finish their sentence and when you finish writing it down. The employee will want to fill in those silences, which will lead to a deeper, more hidden honesty about your leadership.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 14:33:23 +0000
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