In our Leadership Training Courses we ask this question and quite often the answer is a resounding “No”. Yet Leaders are supposed to be role models.

Part of their remit is to provide both positive and constructive feedback to their Team members to help them to grow both professionally and personally, improve their performance and have more opportunities to progress within their organisation.

But Leaders need to grow too. They need to enhance their own skills and competencies, develop their emotional intelligence and be able to navigate their Team’s performance to achieve sustainable results in the uncertain and changeable seas of today’s business world.

So why do Leaders seldom ask for feedback from their Team?  Are they afraid of the response? Is there a belief that they “know it all’?  Do they believe that they shouldn’t work withtheir team because their team works for them?  Should they as leaders have all the answers?

Leaders need to work in a collaborative way with their Team, valuing each member’s contribution and looking for their ideas and ways in which to solve problems.

All of us, including Leaders, have blind spots, and if we don’t receive feedback from others we remain in the dark and are unable to improve, grow or progress. Without feedback we stagnate, and this limits our potential.  Leaders captain the ships of industry and need to constantly grow the potential of others and of themselves.

Leadership is a team effort. In the words of Steve Jobs “Great things in business are never done by one person, they’re done by a Team of people.”

When will you ask your Team for feedback?