Follow Up: Inviting Evaluation From Your Team (Part 3)
If you are following this series you know that I invited our staff to evaluate my leadership. As I said in Part 1 of this follow-up series, we gathered for lunch after a regularly scheduled staff meeting. Essentially the luncheon was to accomplish three things.
- Help me understand some of the comments better. They were actually very open to sharing details.
- Give my commentary to the feedback I received.
- Present my current action plan to address some of the concerns.
Yesterday I shared their feedback. Here are some of the general comments I gave them from their feedback. (The most consistent theme was about my Blackberry, which is why the dominant comments are addressed to that issue.)
- My phone gets email, text messages and phone calls, and I receive lots of them. I am trying not to look during staff meetings or longer planing meetings, but I never know when my wife or the boys might be calling. (I wish I could figure out how to get Blackberry to temporarily turn off a function or if it had a “meeting mode”.)
- The staff often comments that they like that I’m always accessible. I can’t be always accessible and always 100% attentive in meetings.
- I never use my Blackberry when I’m meeting someone for the first time or counseling someone. (Most the staff didn’t know this and felt better about knowing it.)
- I’m a hugely multi-task oriented, so I can listen and do something else at the same time.
- I will never develop as close a relationship with female staffers as I have with male staff members. It’s a matter of personal accountability.
- It is harder to give feedback when you don’t pay attention to details. That’s something I need to work on personally.
- My management style is to hire the right people and let them do their work with limited oversight and input from me.
- I am open to delegating if others can help me figure out what I can give up that I’m currently responsible for doing.
We discussed these comments, which I had prepared in advance of the meeting, and here are some conclusions and action steps as a result:
- I want to get 100% approval on the listening issue next time I solicit this feedback. I will work on this.
- Please know that I do care deeply for the staff and would never want you to think I’m not interested.
- Blackberry accountability started with my son Nate. I wrote a blog about it HERE. My goal is to be more disciplined in this area.
- I try to be accessible leaving my door open and welcoming “drop in” visits, which happens often throughout the day. If, however, the meeting is unplanned I reserve the right to keep working as we talk. If it’s a scheduled meeting our conversation will be my only activity.
- Personality differences are huge in working together. Even the staff differed on how they want to be managed or interaction they want with me, based on their personalities. I will commit to learning more about their personal needs in this area and I ask them to take into consideration my personality.
- I heard “loud and clear” that I need to invest more in the staff and help them not only come up with problems, but actually solve them also. I will attempt to improve in this area.
Okay, so that concludes, for now, this process. What are your thoughts?
