Leaders who make it a habit to ask their direct reports, peers, and boss for feedback on a regular basis will outperform leaders who don’t. Multi-source feedback has a positive effect on performance, for both leaders and teams. Informal feedback is a direct driver of employee engagement. Research shows that 43% of engaged employees receive feedback at least once a week. By contrast, only 18% of employees with low engagement receive feedback weekly.
So, how do you create a safe environment for giving and receiving feedback? The best practice is to ask for regular feedback about yourself as a leader as well as making it a habit to provide regular feedback to your team. Asking for feedback creates a safe place for people to honestly share how they feel about you, your leadership, the job, the current project, and anything at all. This culture of regular feedback promotes continuous improvement and sets a tone of learning and growing for your team.
When you ask for feedback, you make giving feedback okay and receiving feedback less scary. You create psychological safety on your team. Reflect on how you can make informal feedback a leadership practice on your team.