…I’ll ask for it, or so the saying goes. The sad part is that too often in organizations, leaders assume they either can’t ask for your opinion without looking weak or they ask for your opinion in roundabout ways (e.g., anonymous surveys, comment cards).
Few leaders seem comfortable having an open, sharing ideas conversation with their followers.
I should clarify there: few leaders, who are driving people to change, seem willing to have honest conversations with their followers. I theorize that these driving people to change leaders assume that asking for feedback would make them look weak (actually, not asking does that) and would make them seem like they don’t have all the answers (News flash: No one thinks you have all the answers!).
When you’re driving change everything is different. As the leader, you must have these open, sharing of ideas conversations or you can’t be driving change. How else would you ever learn what the obstacles were to implementing your change unless you asked the people implementing it? We all know you’re not psychic.
Forget the anonymous surveys and ignore the comment cards.
Talk to your followers.
Ask them, from their perspective, what the obstacles are to implementing the change.
Then, help them tackle those obstacles.
Don’t forget to claim the conversations and the obstacle destruction as wins.
Keep your eyes up, your feet moving forward and keep driving change!
