Capt. Fletch to loyal leaders requesting fly-by! Hello again and welcome to another edition of the Leadership Toolbox. Last month, we examined the importance of patience in motivating a team and returning it to a successful path. This month, I would like to look into the importance of critical feedback. During the course of my military career, I could generously describe the number of times I received meaningful feedback as minimal. I had to beg my superiors to prescribe things for me to address to better myself.
The difficulty of critical feedback — both delivering and receiving — can prove challenging for any organization. As a leader, you tell someone about their shortcomings. As a subordinate, you have to accept the identified areas of improvement. What tactic works best for both sides to approach something that ultimately benefits the team? Officers like me had a very formalized, standardized process for feedback. We used specific forms and calendar invites to office sessions, but little effort on either side to make the conversation meaningful. In essence, the exercise merely checked a box. Unfortunately, it resulted in no one really knowing how to better themselves or better help the organization accomplish its objectives. I found the same approach in construction in the private sector. The only feedback people seemed to receive followed a crisis on the jobsite. I also learned many leaders only reluctantly receive critical feedback from subordinates.