Written By Chad Kearns

Published on February 1, 2023

Seeking feedback from your team can be one of the most powerful outlets for leaders to build engagement with those they lead. 

Opening yourself up for feedback shows humility. It shows a desire to learn and improve. Most importantly, soliciting, receiving, and acting on feedback effectively provides leaders the opportunity to improve how they lead and how they build their organization in a positive way.

Unfortunately, leaders don’t seek feedback from their team as often as they should. There is so much to gain by doing so. 

Feedback opportunities could focus on:

  • Personal leadership performance
  • Culture engagement
  • Compensation, benefits, and rewards
  • Customer delivery

When leaders frequently seek feedback, regardless of what the focus of that feedback is, there is so much to gain.

Set the example

Seeking feedback shows a desire to listen, understand, and improve. Isn’t that what we want all of our team members to embody? 

As a leader, you set the example for the organization. Everyone looks to you to see which behaviors are normalized and acceptable. When a leader opens themselves up to receive feedback and they receive it well, they are building a culture of trust. It’s likely that when others see a leader receiving feedback well, they will follow suit.

Your organization will grow when feedback flows freely upwards and downwards.  

Let your Team Members Be Heard

When team members feel like they have the ears of the leadership team, engagement grows. Team members want to voice their thoughts and they want their voices to be heard. Team members want to know that their ideas and observations play a role in shaping an organization. 

Providing opportunities for team members to share their opinions on a regular basis is a great way to make them feel like they have a say. 

Identify Strengths to Lean In

Not all feedback is negative! Receiving feedback will also likely highlight what’s working really well. As a leader, knowing what resonates with your team and leaning further into those areas is a great way to build engagement throughout your organization. 

Receiving feedback presents an opportunity to hear about what is going really well. Getting that intel offers moments for pause and gratitude, and presents opportunities to lean further into the strengths of an individual or the organization. 

Identify Pain Points to Improve

Feedback is, unfortunately, solely thought of as identifying deficiencies that should be improved. And while that isn’t what feedback is only about, areas for improvement usually surface when feedback is collected. 

When you seek feedback, you’re likely going to hear existing pain points and desires from your team. And while you may not be able to address and correct all of them immediately or ever, understanding what pain points exist is extremely valuable while leading your team. 

Seek Feedback Frequently and Effectively to Grow Engagement

There is so much to be gained for leaders who find ways to effectively and frequently solicit feedback from their team. Leaders who solicit, consider, and act on what’s voiced by team members will further engage their teams and grow their organizations.

And while collecting feedback is an essential part of building engagement, following through appropriately after feedback is collected is even more important.

How are you seeking feedback from the team you lead?