Looking to Develop as a Leader? Ask for Feedback.

One of the best ways to develop one’s leadership skills is to ask for feedback. How one is perceived by others is one of the most important factors in how effective one can be as a leader. While I often encourage leaders to ask for feedback directly, people may be hesitant to share honest feedback, especially with a supervisor. For this reason, Nebo recommends that all leaders who are serious about their own growth and development experience a 360 degree assessment in which feedback may be shared anonymously. 

360 degree feedback assessments provide great insights for a leader. Here are some examples of what one may discover when undergoing a 360 process:

• A leader rates themselves highly, while others rate the leader lower in most area. When a leader rates themselves more highly than others across a slate of leadership competencies, it suggests that the leader may have some blindspots. The leader may want to develop their own self-awareness to better understand how they are perceived by others.
  
  
• A leader rates themselves lower than they are rated by others. When a leader gives themselves lower ratings than the ratings they were given by others, it often indicates a leader needs to work on developing confidence in order to fully own the talents they bring to their role.
  
  
• A leader receives high ratings from one group of raters, and low ratings from another. One example of this is when I leader receives high ratings from peers and supervisors, and low ratings from direct reports. This could indicate that the leader is showing up differently for different audiences. The leader may want to explore the discrepancy in the ratings between the groups in order to be more effective with all colleagues.

A good 360 tool will provide a lot of feedback that may be used for years of growth and development. At Nebo, we use the Leadership Circle Profile for its robust feedback and report. A Nebo coaches work with leaders to narrow down the feedback to one or two areas on which to focus. Over time, the leader can continue to select additional areas of feedback on which to focuses they continue to develop as leader.

Contact us to learn more about our leadership coaching and the 360 assessment process with Nebo.

Download our Effective Leadership Communication Guide to discover how leaders are able to effectively use conversation to provide the direction, encouragement, feedback, accountability and support required by the situations they face.