The other day I said to my boss, “After this is over, I’d like to sit down and talk thru where I made mistakes or where I made all of this harder than it should have been.”
Fifteen years ago I would have never said that. It would have been a request to have someone tell me things I really didn’t want to hear. I would have felt picked on and defensive.
I’m glad I’m not that person anymore. But I’m still on journey – because while asking for the feedback is critical, so it listening and making changes. That’s where I’m still a work in progress.
But here’s the thing – if I don’t ask for feedback, and I don’t model how to receive it, how will my team ever make it a core part of our culture? They’ll walk around with the idea that it’s not important to ask for it, or not important to change because of it.
That’s why this is one of my leadership mantras.