The best feedback comes from the people you lead. They see your blind spots every single day.
GRATITUDE
WHAT THIS MEANS
The people beneath you in any structure have the most accurate picture of how you actually operate and the least incentive to tell you. They see the pattern you cannot see from inside it, repeated daily, and they have usually discussed it with each other. Getting that information means making it safe enough to be worth their risk.
Ask one person directly what you do that makes their work harder, and ask in a way that expects a real answer. Then say thank you and change something visible. Nothing else you do will convince the next person to be honest.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
What could the people below you teach you about yourself?
MORE IN COMMUNICATION & LANGUAGE
- Customer service is an unpaid degree in reading people. You’ll use it in every room you ever walk into.
- Reading a memoir is borrowing someone’s whole life for a weekend and returning it with notes.
- Someone’s offhand “you’re good at this” in ninth grade might be why you still draw. Pass that sentence along.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.