How do you gather feedback for your executive leadership assessment?

As an executive leader, you need to constantly evaluate your performance and identify areas for improvement. One of the best ways to do that is to gather feedback from various sources, such as your peers, direct reports, customers, and stakeholders. However, collecting and analyzing feedback can be challenging, especially if you don't have a clear process or a reliable tool. In this article, we will share some tips on how to gather feedback for your executive leadership assessment and use it to enhance your skills and impact.

1 Define your objectives

Before you start asking for feedback, you need to define what you want to achieve with your executive leadership assessment. What are your strengths and weaknesses as a leader? What are your goals and priorities for the next quarter or year? How do you measure your success and impact? Having a clear vision of your objectives will help you focus your feedback requests and align them with your development plan.

Add your perspective

Czarina Tabayoyong
Report contribution
As an executive, requesting feedback can indeed be instrumental for your growth. The pivotal first step lies in identifying your objectives. Let's consider a CEO feeling a disconnect with their team. They may want to assess their communication style and effectiveness. By setting this as an objective, they can craft specific, targeted questions for team members: 'Do you feel informed about company updates?' or 'Do you understand the company's current strategic focus?' Establishing clear objectives ensures the feedback received is valuable and relevant, contributing effectively to your growth plan. Remember, this isn't an interrogation of your performance but a powerful tool for continuous self-improvement and leadership development.

Like

2 Choose your sources

The next step is to choose who you want to get feedback from. Ideally, you should seek feedback from a diverse and representative group of people who have different perspectives and experiences with your leadership. For example, you can include your peers, direct reports, customers, stakeholders, mentors, and external partners. You can also use self-assessment tools or surveys to complement the feedback from others.

Add your perspective

Czarina Tabayoyong
Report contribution
Choosing diverse feedback sources is indeed crucial. Remember, leadership impact varies among different groups. Your peers might appreciate your strategic thinking, whereas direct reports may value your communication skills more. Meanwhile, external stakeholders, like partners or clients, can provide insights on your external leadership persona.

Like

3 Use a feedback tool

To make the feedback process easier and more effective, you can use a feedback tool that allows you to collect, organize, and analyze the feedback data. A feedback tool can help you create customized questions, send feedback requests, track responses, and generate reports. Some examples of feedback tools are 360-degree feedback, leadership competency frameworks, and behavioral indicators. You can choose a feedback tool that suits your needs and preferences, or create your own.

Add your perspective

4 Ask open-ended questions

Getting quality feedback requires asking open-ended questions that encourage honest and constructive responses. These questions should be broad enough to let the feedback provider share their opinions, insights, and suggestions without being limited by predefined options or ratings. For instance, you can inquire about your leadership skills such as what you do well, areas for improvement, communication style and frequency, support for growth and development, handling of conflict and feedback, and ability to influence and inspire others.

Add your perspective

Czarina Tabayoyong
Report contribution
Open-ended questions promote candid, valuable responses. Consider asking, "What's one thing you think I should continue doing as a leader, and why?" This might get responses like, "Your approachability makes it easier for us to share issues—we hope you continue this." Or, "Could you describe a time when my decision-making process might have been better?" You might hear, "During Project X, quicker decisions could have led to a smoother execution." Such detailed feedback could reveal blind spots and opportunities for growth.

Like

5 Be receptive and respectful

The final step is to be receptive and respectful of the feedback that you receive. Feedback is a gift that can help you grow and learn, but it can also be challenging to hear and accept. Therefore, you need to be open-minded and curious, and avoid being defensive or dismissive. You also need to respect the feedback providers and thank them for their time and input. You can also ask follow-up questions or clarifications if needed.

Feedback is a powerful tool for executive leadership assessment and development. By following these tips, you can gather feedback from various sources, use a feedback tool to collect and analyze the data, ask open-ended questions to elicit quality responses, and be receptive and respectful of the feedback. By doing so, you can gain valuable insights into your performance and impact, and identify opportunities for improvement and growth.

Add your perspective

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

Add your perspective

How do you gather feedback for your executive leadership assessment?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Define your objectives

2 Choose your sources

3 Use a feedback tool

4 Ask open-ended questions

5 Be receptive and respectful

6 Here’s what else to consider

Executive Leadership

Rate this article

Thanks for your feedback

More articles on Executive Leadership

More relevant reading