Great Leaders Practice Feedforward

Almost every serious organization uses some form of feedback to evaluate the performance of their top leadership team.  This usually works best in a 360 type environment where the person receives feedback from superiors, peers and subordinates as well.

The concept of feedforward was developed by Marshall Goldsmith in his best seller What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, which is  about how to coach senior executives.  He encourages every leader to identify core behaviors that need to change through feedback.  Then apologize for your mistake and commit to change that character quality in the future.

The primary way he recommends to accomplish this is through the four disciplines in feedforward:

1.  Identify Target Behavior—choose the one behavior that your colleagues have told you about that you consider to be at the top of your list for change.  The number one issue among the thousands of people he has worked with is to be a better listener.
2. Enlist Accountability Partners—the key here is to secure a personal commitment from as many people as possible to help you in this particular area.  This should include family members as well as various levels of people within the organization where you work.  They will all commit to help you focus on this one specific area and help you with ongoing feedback.
3. Solicit Specific Suggestions—ask everyone in your accountability circle for at least two suggestions that might help you achieve a positive change in your selected behavior.  The key ground rule here is that there should be no mention of mistakes in the past but every comment is about the future.
4. Practice Active Listening—take appropriate notes if necessary but make sure you are really listening to each and every suggestion to the point that you can put it into practice.  Also it is very important regardless of the quality of the input to be sure to graciously thank everyone involved who will take the time and emotional risk of telling you what you really need to hear.

Instead of waiting six months for the next performance review cycle, get feedback when you need it so you can become a better leader.