Is the leader responsible for creating a feedback culture?
How do you embrace team members to give and receive feedback.
Today I had a discussion if a leader is responsible for how his team is doing in giving feedback to each other. One of the leaders raised a concern:
The leader can be an example in giving and receiving feedback but does not have influence if people are feedbacking each other.
I disagree.
Let’s start with why we need this at all:
Feedback culture helps the team to improve faster.
You see something that can be improved, you raise it. To make it effective you don’t use a proxy, you provide the feedback directly and just in time.
When it becomes part of the team’s DNA it speeds improvement significantly. It becomes a self-improving machine.
How does it connect with leadership?
Let’s get back to my favorite definition, created by Julie Zhuo:
Your job as a manager is to get better outcomes from a group of people working together.
So if we are supposed to help a group of people achieve better results. Direct, in-time feedback is helping the team to self-improve… it sounds like a turbine for your team’s engine.
Why you do have an impact on it?
Ok, but let’s get back to the point: …I don’t have influence if people are feedbacking each other.
I think it’s only true if we confuse leadership with control. Yes, you don’t have control over how people behave. However:
Leadership is about influence, not control. I am not the first person to make this observation, but it is worth repeating. The truth is that control is an illusion. You can’t control anyone, even the people that report to you.
However, while you can’t control anyone (except perhaps yourself), you can influence nearly everyone. This is the essence of true leadership.
Read in full: Are You Confusing Leadership and Control? Micheal Hyatt
As a leader, I don’t want to have people on the team who are not capable of giving/receiving feedback. I will do a lot to help those who struggle with it and let go of those who don’t change.
You have plenty of tools how to influence how the feedback is provided and if it is happening at all:
Whenever someone approaches you and complains about others, ask if they tried to solve the issue directly.
Guide how to do it properly, and encourage you to do it by showing the importance of it.
Don’t put yourself in the middle if there was no direct connection. Mediate only if things cannot be resolved directly.
Serve as an example. Show the team you care about it, on any occasion. Show appreciation and voice things to be improved.
Don’t accept passiveness. You see someone isn’t satisfied with others’ work, again encourage them to act.
Discuss the importance of the feedback. Show that feedback is there to improve, not to blame.
Cut the blaming off immediately.
Cut talking behind someone's back.
Embrace the failure, focus on what next, and how to avoid such things in the future. Again, improvement, not blame.
Educate people coming from different environments. Don’t assume everyone understands.
Don’t accept an opposite attitude for a long time.
I guarantee that if you do this consistently, you will have a huge impact on how the team behaves.