When you give feedback, you’re more likely to receive it….Uh-Oh!

One of the hidden “contracts” leaders have with their employees is a kind of “live and let live” mindset, when it comes to avoiding feedback. It goes something like this, in the mind of the leader. “Hey, I have flaws, just like Joe over here does. But I support Joe—by not bothering him about what he doesn’t do that well, and I won’t feel so much on the spot to do the things I don’t do so well either.” If I get really particular about Joe’s work performance, then I would feel the need to clean up my act too.”

“Take project management...Joe is often late with his deliverables, but then I’m not really so great a planner myself, and I’m too busy to enter all that detailed information about changes I’d like from him.

“In fact, Joe covers my back at lot of the time. He himself enters the information for me—after the fact. I don’t know what I would do without Joe. We make a great team.”

The point here is that both leader and employee are missing out on better performance and needed improvements in the way they handle their business.

If you give helpful feedback to your folks, you’re likely to get in back. Joe might say, “Yeah, I can work on my timeliness—but I need you to give me the timely information I need.”

Can you take it?