1 Simple Habit That Separate Top Leaders From Toxic Bosses

If you’re anything like me, you understand that feedback is the lifeblood of growth, both personally and professionally. Receiving feedback can be a bit challenging for leaders, and there are a few reasons why. They might feel like admitting areas for improvement is a hit to their pride. It’s like saying, “Hey, you’re not perfect.” But let’s be real, none of us are.

They also might worry that acknowledging a need for improvement might be seen as a sign of incompetence or failure. But hey, even the best leaders have room to grow.

To become an exceptional leader, go where courageous leaders are willing to venture. Seek honest feedback, even if the feedback is not what you want to hear.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk is not exactly the poster child for people leadership–far from it, in fact. But to his credit, Musk is no stranger to employing a feedback loop to fix problems and improve things. In a Mashable interview a few years back, Musk dropped this rather surprising quote:

I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better. I think that’s the single best piece of advice — constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.

The point is, in trusted teams and positive work cultures, constructive and even negative feedback will stretch both leaders and their workers to question whether something is working so they can learn new things and consider other, better options to fix business problems.

Recent research conducted by Zippia indicates that 60% of employees have expressed the desire to receive regular feedback from within the organization. This underscores the importance of companies making feedback an integral part of their day-to-day operations. Regular feedback is a crucial factor in making employees feel valued by the company and in boosting their overall wellbeing and satisfaction.

“Providing and receiving honest feedback is crucial for any business. Managers and employees can both benefit from it, whether positive or negative, and use it to build on and learn from moving forward,” says Dominic Fitch, Head of Creative Change at Impact, the world’s leading experiential learning company.

Fitch emphasizes feedback for improving managers: “Feedback from the workforce can be very useful for their leadership development, ensuring they are performing optimally for the benefit of the team and the overall business.”

Developing a culture of continuous feedback is really for everyone. It gives valuable insights into people’s strengths and weaknesses, which they can use to build upon. Regular feedback sessions can ensure that employees act on suggestions to enhance their skills and unlock their full potential. This can lead to personal growth and professional development opportunities. 

Let’s face it, many autocratic managers view feedback as a threat to their power, self-worth, and position, which explains why they are opposed to it and often react fearfully and defensively to feedback.

Good leaders, on the other hand, view feedback as a gift to improve their leadership so they can serve others and their business mission better. They value truth, honesty, and diverse perspectives for bettering themselves and their businesses.

Even when feedback is negative, it prompts an exercise in curious exploration to find out where things went wrong so that it doesn’t happen again. Feedback is the gift that keeps on giving.