How to solicit feedback when you’re the leader

Written By Alan Heymann

I was new in my role as a vice president for a global nonprofit, and I had so much to learn. In my first few weeks on the job, I scheduled a couple of dozen meetings with various people around the org -- on my team and other teams. I wanted to know what they thought I should know, and how they thought I should approach this massive job I'd just taken on.

I started one of these meetings the same way I started the previous bunch. Seated across the table with a member of the team who was a few layers deep into my org chart, we chatted for a few minutes before I asked what I thought was a pretty straightforward question:

"What's something I could do to make your life easier, or make your job better?"

I'll get to her specific answer in a moment, but what she said first took my breath away a little. Here was a thoughtful and kind, exceptionally competent employee who had been in the organization for more than five years.

"This is the first time someone at your level has ever asked me that question."

I resolved to ask it more often, of her and her peers, for as long as I held that job.

So I started experimenting with a stop/start/continue approach. I would ask my direct reports, and sometimes their direct reports:

  • What should I stop doing that would help you be more effective in your role?

  • What should I start doing that would help you be more effective in your role?

  • What should I continue doing that would help you be more effective in your role?

This stop/start/continue framework wasn't my invention, but I relied on it heavily. I have since introduced it to many of the leaders I coach. You can use it too, if you're genuinely curious about what everyone has to say -- and serious about making at least some of the changes they suggest.

Be prepared for some answers that are familiar. If you already know your habit of emailing your staff at 3 a.m. isn't serving you or them, you'll likely get some validation for the idea.

Be prepared for some answers that are unfamiliar. This is the whole point of the exercise. People who work closer to the ground level of an organization can see things their leaders cannot.

Be prepared for some answers that are low-hanging fruit. If your team isn't performing at its best because they keep running out of pens, that's an easy fix.

And, be prepared for some answers that take significant resources to resolve. In the case of my team member at the nonprofit, she was in desperate need of some help because she was the only person on the whole team with a unique skillset. It took me almost six months, but I got a position created and funded to back her up.

I also learned that it was incredibly hard for my staff of cubicle-dwellers to find private space for meetings. So I turned a small room (which had housed only a printer) into a conference room. I was a VP with a private office and my own conference table. So, had I never asked the question, I never would have seen the need. 

Stop/Start/Continue was also a great replacement for my original, well-intentioned, but completely ineffective method of trying to get feedback from my team:

"My door is always open." (It wasn't.)
"You can always share your feedback on how I'm doing as your leader." (Nobody ever did.)

Here are a few of my favorite resources on giving and receiving feedback:

If there is anything I can stop, start or continue doing to support you in your leadership, please let me know!

Alan Heymann
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