By George L. Rosario, CEO & Founder at GC Rosario Group
Are you open to self-reflection? If you are in any leadership position, you better be.
All great leaders spent time evaluating themselves and welcoming others to provide criticism and feedback in order to address any areas where they lacked adequate skills. I will admit that giving others permission to point out your flaws is perhaps the ultimate step outside of your comfort zone moment for some. Yet it is this uncomfortable practice that will help you become better and stronger at what you've set out to become.
Once you've welcomed an honest report card of your character and performance as a leader, you can then begin to train your brain to find enjoyment in the practice of self-evaluation. True leaders do not worry about the feedback. They welcome it as the ultimate, and most honest tool for growth.
So how do we ensure we get real feedback?
Step 1
Do not discriminate. Invite everyone around you (even those who may not like you as much as you like yourself), to participate in giving you feedback. Don't become defensive. Let others shine a light on your blind-spots. This is how you will identify and improve on your weak areas.
As leaders in our company, Claudia and I open the floor every three months to the team. It is a time for every member to express themselves openly, without fear of reprimand or retaliation. We ask them to point out what they think we can do to become better leaders.
Claudia and I are servant leaders at GC Rosario Group. That means we make it our duty to serve those whom we are called to lead. And as such, we do not exclude anyone from this invitation. Everyone in the company gets a go at us. It has actually become a lot of fun, and it's made us much closer. We do not allow their feedback to offend us, but rather use it to make us better servants to our team so that we can meet their needs.
Step 2
Use this as a building block the help create a stronger foundation for your organization. We also use this to learn new power skills, and finely tune the ones we've already been using. By framing the learning platform as a conversation, we can begin with open ended questions about the people we lead. We ask them how they are doing before asking them to open up about how we are doing. It's a two way street, and we strive to start the journey from their point of view rather than from ours.
Before stepping onto the hot seat, Claudia and I discuss their suggestions, their ideas, their expectations, their concerns and their feelings about their place in the company. This reminds them that this self-evaluation exercise is about us becoming better so that we can help the workplace become a better space for all.
When you as a leader enter the hot seat, make sure you enter it with a spirit of love and empathy. Empathy involves two crucial elements. First, there's the logic (thoughts) side of empathy. It is putting yourself in your people's shoes by making an effort to think the way they do. Second, there's the emotional (feelings) side of empathy. It is when a leader makes an attempt to understand how his followers feel towards him and his actions.
You can set the stage for this by asking your followers to express how they are doing, how they are feeling and what they think of this exercise should go. Invite them and encourage them to take the wheel and direct this exercise. Be open to listening more than you speak. Most importantly, don't make this moment a debate. This is a safe place for your people to speak frankly. It is not a platform for you to get defensive and/or disagree with their assessment of you. It's about their thoughts and feelings, not about yours. That's empathy.
Step 3
Then there is the third step, and that one involves you taking action. This is where you use the hot seat to curb your negative actions, enhance those that are deemed positive, and turn everything about your reaction to the feedback into a deliberate plan of action. Put your people's sugestiones into deliberate practice.
This is where the real fun begins. See, your people want to love you and respect you, but only if they feel loved and respected. So this is where you get to repent from your past sins in action, do a positive turnaround and show them that you are listening, and that you care.
By committing to use their feedback to improve your leadership skills, the culture at your company will naturally start to take a pleasant shift. You will become more conscious of your people's behavior in the workplace. Your people will also take ownership of their company, and therefor become a lot more productive.
Are you ready to supercharge your company's growth. Give it back to your people. The days of the suggestion box are old and outdated. I'm not telling you not to have one at the office, but having an open forum where your people can communicate freely with you will prove to be far more effective.
If you want to supercharge this learning feedback loop, you might also want to sit one on one with your people to go over what they said while you were on the hot seat, and welcome them to partner up with you to make things better. You can also sit down with a coach and analyze your performance in detail. Technology can also help you accelerate this. Some leaders use virtual reality and AI-powered avatars to collect data on your performance. It's like a suggestion box that you can monitor when you are awake.
So right now, your inner voice should be screaming "the future is looking pretty awesome!"
George L. Rosario is a Brooklyn NY born & raised businessman & entrepreneur turned consultant. He started GC Rosario Group with his lovely wife Claudia. With over 30 years of service to the marketplace in NYC, George has relocated and been graciously adopted by the business community of South Florida. He now travels the country helping businesses and organizations thrive in today’s noisy environment. The post-Covid era forced many to close their doors, but also opened new doors of opportunity, growth and prosperity for innovative thinkers. George & Claudia Rosario help companies, businesses, organizations and teams develop the necessary skillset and plan of action to not just survive, but thrive in this new world. GC Rosario Group helps both secular and Christian based institutions meet their goals.
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