No one tells executives they are doing a bad job. here is c

Two discussions on Hacker News recently highlighted the utter failures of leadership in technology. The first was an honest question: " Women in tech, how do you find work environments non-toxic? " The second was in response to an article, " Why the right people are leaving big tech companies . "

These threads are read like the Inept Executive Handbook - inability to solve cultural problems, ignorance of the reality of their employees' daily life, mismanagement of everything, from HR complaints to stock options.}

My intention is not to be unnecessarily harsh on executives, all humans are prone to error, but leaders are at the greatest risk of believing in a only version of reality - ours. I know it's hard to believe, but yes, we often get it wrong.

The executive title is a fun thing. The higher you go in an organization, the more you tend to become isolated. It becomes more and more difficult to get a true picture of your effectiveness in leading a team.

Leaders, if you want the truth you have to stop assuming that people will come and tell you, you are going to have to work for it. Why? Well, we are all subject to the peculiarities of human behavior. As a senior leader, you are invariably isolated from an honest assessment of your behavior. The main reason this happens is fear.

Even in the harshest environmentss progressive and most supportive, people are reluctant to provide honest feedback on their leaders - Self-preservation is an exceptionally strong motivation.

We're trying something a little different at home to make sure our senior leaders know exactly what they are doing that is having a positive impact and what is not. This is where I come in. My job at being the person who tells leaders what others don't want or can't.

Yes, it 'sa strange role.

I want to share this process because I think it's time for executives to stop expecting someone to speak up if something needs to change. It's time for executives to take honest feedback seriously.

My 3-step process for getting honest feedback from management

1) Identify a wide range of people surrounding the leader in question and interviewsextensive feedback with them.

For a full set of feedback, I will interview an average of 18 people who interact with the framework being reviewed. I divide the interviewees into the following groups:

• Direct reports / team members - no need for explanation on this one
• Peers - this are people working in the same way as an executive under review and having a working relationship with that person
• Associates - these are people that the executive works with cross-functionally to make the work
• Manager - that's pretty clear
• Self - yeah, that's right, the executive does a self-assessment by answering the same questions as everyone else

For each person providing feedback, I will conduct a 30 minute interview and capture their feelings through handwritten notes. At the end of an interviewWell, I take half an hour and transcribe my notes into a master document which will ultimately contain the notes of all the interviews for a particular 360.

I'm sure some of you think : "Woah, this 's really inefficient ... you should just take notes on your computer or better yet record the interviews ".

You would think so.

But, what I have found is that nothing reduces the level of frankness like typing (no eye contact), and the reminder that an audio recording of the conversation will live. So old-fashioned pen and paper.

2) Compile the results of the interview into a 360 ° feedback report for the executive.

When all the interviews are over and the notes have been transcribed into a master notes document, I read the notes several times to draw the main conclusions and capture them in a separate document which will become the rappoExecutive 360 ​​feedback rt. To qualify as a "finding", a problem must have been mentioned by at least 5 different people - this is discovering the signal in the feedback noise.

Next, I compare the quotes from each feedback interview with the appropriate conclusion that I listed in the feedback report, and finally, write a general summary of that conclusion to add clarity and from context to supporting citations.

The results of the feedback are presented in 4 sections:

1. The first section deals with positive strengths / impacts.
2. The second deals with what bothers you / negative impacts.
3. The third section is Stop / Start / Continue which contains all the specific advice given by the interviewees when I asked them: “If you could give specific advice to [Leader] to be more effective, than Would you tell them to stop doing? What would you say to thems to start doing? What would you tell them to keep doing because it works? "
4. The fourth section is the self-assessment. As I mentioned above, the leader who receives 360 feedback is asked the same questions as the people I interviewed. Their self-perceptions and perspectives are detailed in the report so that the executive can compare their own perspective to that of those pr commenting.

My intention is to be as impartial as possible, but I also filter comments through the lens of. There are certain behaviors that, in a different organization, would be a strength. The primary goal of this program is to provide effective and actionable feedback, calibrated against the context of our organization's unique attributes.

3) Share the comments with the manager and his manager.

This is undoubtedly the mostdifficult of the process. At, we think of feedback as the breakfast of champions; that doesn't mean it's always delicious. While the feedback I provide focuses on strengths and positive impacts, the part that everyone always wants to delve into is about negative impacts and what is happening in your path.

In every 360, there are inevitably elements of negative feedback. the executive is surprised to learn, finds it difficult to deal with or disagrees at all. It's normal. There are some key things that I focus the manager on when providing this feedback in order to make the experience as enjoyable as possible.

The first thing I coach with executives is how can you derive even more success from your strengths and behaviors that have a positive impact on the organization and the people around you . I warn the gens when they consider the results of the negative impacts / what bothers you about not jumping to the conclusion "I need to work on this right now". As you can imagine, it 's more complicated than that.

When thinking about things that are having a negative effect or that hinder greater success, you should think more broadly than just "I need to work on this ". You need to consider the following:

• Is this negative impact a function of the role I have and no change on my part will really affect the feeling of discovery?
• Is this the result of how I fundamentally behave as a person and making a change in this area will take years of my effort which will not solve the problem just yet?
• What if I figured out how to minimize the negative impact of behavior rather than trying to change who I am?
• Is this something that I have theability to change with relative ease and that the change will make a tangible difference in my effectiveness as a manager and leader?

If you're still with me, I want to make something really clear - the sole purpose of this effort is to make good executives better, by keeping them tuned in to real reality, not just the reality in their own head. Getting an Executive 360 ​​is not an indicator that things are going badly for that person. This is an indicator that this person has even higher levels of success, and it is essential that they know what to focus on and what needs to work. This is why the review of the reviews itself takes a two-part form:

Part One

I am conducting a one-hour review session with the executive to review the findings to ensure clarity all comments contained in the Executive 360 ​​document.In this conversation, we together make initial judgments about which strengths to build on and areas of negative impact where either making a change would be effective or minimizing the impact of something is the right approach.

Depending on the nature of the comments and the approaches needed to move forward, we come to a conclusion on the level of involvement I might have to help them act on the comments that they have now.

Part Two

I lead a half hour session with the CEO to review the overall results. During this session, I present a synthesis document which contains only the positive and negative results. This document does not include citations for each finding, the Stop, Start, Continue, or Self-Assessment section.

Given the highly personal nature of the comments, it isthe recipient to share the most detailed information. version of feedback with t heir manager. During the session with the chief executive, I will also share most of the conversation I had with the executive and the next steps we could have decided.

It is essential for the maintainer and recipient of comments to be aware of the findings as much of the development work that results from the document and the review will be carried out by the executive and its manager. The 360 ​​itself, while it is a valuable tool in clarifying how people perceive the effectiveness of a leader, will not change behavior.

It 's on the shoulders of the executive to do the hard work of building on strengths and developing strategies for the things that get in their way. My role in this regard is to provide additional coaching to thediscretion of the development partnership between the leader and his manager.

As you have probably guessed, this level of feedback is a lot of effort and emotionally charged landmines.

Leadership is in the eye of the beholder.

There are many reasons why people may choose to follow a leader - vision, inspiration, power, fear - these are just a few. No matter how motivated people are to follow, the way you lead will have a significant impact on your ability to be successful in your organization. Often times, the way you lead is referred to as your leadership style.

Leadership is in the eye of the beholder. “Wait” you say, “I'm the one leading, so I'm setting up my leadership style”. In fact, you exhibit the set of behaviors that you use to lead. Your followers, those who observe and are affected by these behaviors, define yourbe leadership style.

Think of it this way. While someone you lead may see your approach as demanding and direct; another might see you as decisive with high expectations; yet another might see you as an unreasonable jerk who doesn't listen.

Who is right? They all are.

So if you want honest feedback on how you're doing, stop assuming it's just going to show up. It 's up to you to get out there and find the problems - and the opportunities.

Editor 's note: his version of this article first appeared on ThinkGrowth.org.