How to Get Employee Feedback and Become a Better Leader

Getting honest, authentic feedback from your employees is essential to becoming a better leader and demonstrating you care about your team members’ ideas, opinions and concerns. Your employees need to have a voice, and their input should influence your management decisions. But making sure employees feel safe sharing their honest thoughts with you can be a challenge.This week, I’ve been reading about how important employee input is to the success of leaders and organizations, and how you can help yourself by learning how to get employee feedback from your team members. I think you’ll find these articles and blog posts helpful.4 Ways to Get Truly Honest Feedback From Employees. Entrepreneur: “The anonymous aspect of the stereotypical suggestion box encourages employees to give their two cents because there’s no fear of retribution. But that fear shouldn’t be present if a company has successfully developed a culture based on open communication and an ownership mentality. Employees should feel empowered and realize they have a stake in the success (or lack thereof) of the organization. Instead, embrace transparency, just like marketing agency Quirk. Quirk created a public process -- in the form of a flow chart on the office wall -- that allows anyone in the company to suggest ideas, gather support for those ideas (through signatures) and potentially have them implemented.”  5 Tips for Managing Remote Workers. The Huffington Post: “If you only see an employee once a month (or less), it's easy to forget about them when it comes to party invitations, morale-boosting events, or meetings about upcoming efforts. At worst, you could begin thinking of them as the most disposable part of your team--and they'll notice. Address this by staying in contact with the employee. If they live within reasonable driving distance, get them into the office on a regular basis. If not, use Skype or a similar service to actually speak with them and get their feedback on things. Being available to help them when they need it will reinforce their commitment to the company and encourage them to make the extra effort on your behalf.”5 Ways to Get the Most Out of Employee Feedback. Business News Daily: “John Sumanth, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at the Wake Forest University School of Business, said businesses gain a lot of benefits from fostering workplaces where employees feel comfortable sharing their opinions. Among the largest are higher employee engagement and job satisfaction, enhanced innovation and creativity, fewer accidents, and safer workplaces. The key, however, is ensuring the feedback provides actual value. ‘But reviewing open-ended comments on an employee survey or ideas in a suggestion box, it quickly becomes clear that not all voice is created equal,’ Sumanth said in a statement.”Why Feedback is a Vital Tool for Leaders? CEOWorld Magazine: A recent study from leadership development firm, Zenger Folkman, found that leaders who ask for feedback are substantially more effective than leaders who don’t. Leaders who ranked in the bottom 10% in asking for feedback were rated at the 15th percentile in leadership effectiveness. Conversely, those in the top 10% of asking for feedback from their employees, were ranked in the 86th percentile in overall leadership ability. Asking for feedback can give leaders insight into their blind spots, ensuring greater self-awareness and a deeper understanding of how they need to improve their performance.How to Get Better Employee Feedback. WorkCompass: “Consider asking questions focused on who, what, when, where, why, and how. The questions you need to ask should not prompt basic ‘yes or no’ responses. Ask open-ended questions that lead to a conversation about improvement. You’re not conducting an interrogation. If you’re not asking the right questions, you create a barrier to getting the needed feedback. It is not enough for your team that you host an ‘open-door policy.’ You need to be an open to the point where people are comfortable approaching you with their ideas or concerns. Now being an open leader also means learning from your employees. Employees will share so much with you when they’re comfortable and can see you put forth the effort to learn.”Need help learning how to get employee feedback? Contact us; we’re happy to assist.Success Labs is a leadership development and management consulting firm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For more than 25 years, our expert team of consultants has worked with hundreds of companies to explore their business potential and improve their company and cultural performance. Contact us to get proactive about your people strategy.