As leaders, we rely on obtaining frequent and transparent feedback from our team members both for personal and organizational growth.

Constructive feedback not only helps us make better-informed strategic and operational decisions, but it also helps foster a culture of open communication.

And as most leaders know, it’s a lot easier said than done.

So what are a few things leaders should consider when working at drawing out more quality feedback from your team?

Have You Built Trust?

Trust is the foundation of any successful feedback exchange, and team members must feel secure and confident in sharing their thoughts and concerns with you.

If team members are worried about your reaction or if they're worried about what's going to happen to them after they share what they have to share with you, then they're just not going to do it. Or they might do it a couple of times and then be like, “What's the point?” So you really want to make sure that you are not contributing...

In one of the recent episodes, I talked about ensuring that your new leaders were both technically proficient as well as effective.

And in response to that, I was asked, what about cultural differences and background in the team or with the new leader and what about levels of experience and skills and the difficulty to reconcile them?

Again, thank you so much for the question!

Because I felt that these were two complementary topics, I chose to address them separately. In Part I, which was the previous episode, I answered “What about levels of experience and skills and the difficulty to reconcile them?”

And, now, for Part II, let’s answer what can new leaders do to help address varying levels of experience and skills and the difficulty in reconciling them within a team?

Begin with an assessment

Start by addressing the various levels of experience and skills within the team by reviewing who is in your team. The needs will be different. The time commitments will be...

Recently, I talked about ensuring that your new leaders were both technically proficient as well as effective.

And in response to that, I was asked, what about cultural differences and background in the team or with the new leader and what about levels of experience and skills and the difficulty to reconcile them?

First, thank you so much for the question.

Second, let’s talk about it!

I feel that there are really two distinct topics here, and, therefore, I’ll divide them in two parts.

So for Part I, let’s answer what can new leaders do to help address cultural differences and backgrounds between themselves and/or the team?

Start learning

Like many leaders, I am not a DE&I expert. Although I do my best to educate myself in terms of diversity, equity, and inclusion, it is not my specialty. And the risk, of course, as we know it, is in the unknown unknowns. As in what do I not know that I don't know?

Personally, to get help with that, I have turned to hiring...

If you’re anything like me, these past few years have created habits of overwork.

Both growing a small business and being a leader have become so all-encompassing that I’ve been dropping the ball on an essential part: continuous growth.

I used to be really consistent with reading leadership books, business books. I used to attend webinars, take courses, regularly meet with people and then, somehow, operational aspects of the businesses took over.

Realizing this, I ensured to still make time for strategy by forcing recurring meetings which would, in turn, push me back out to planning strategically. But that did not address the growth part. Unless you count overcoming challenges but that is more unintentional growth. And I’m talking about controlled, intentional growth.

So what can we do to get back on the learning track when operational requirements have taken over?

Join a book club

One thing that you can do is join a book club. Now, to be fair, when I told my...