Page 277 - The extraordinary leader

254 • The Extraordinary Leader

We recommend the reader obtain Michael Marquardt’s book Action Learn-
17
ing. It is a practical discourse on action learning and how to implement it
in any organization. There is also an excellent chapter (Chapter 4) on action
learning in David A. Garvin’s Learning in Action. 18

Create a Culture of Feedback
Leadership development is significantly enhanced in a culture in which
continual feedback is common. A variety of mechanisms exists to help make
this happen, and we think they are highly useful.
Some of those are

● 360-degree feedback procedures
● Frequent performance discussions between bosses and subordinates
● Team-building sessions
● Coaching relationships
● Skip-level meetings

We often think of feedback as consisting of harsh or difficult messages.
Nothing is more untrue. Some of the most valuable feedback in organizations
is letting people know that what they are doing is appreciated and helpful to
others. This is very much in keeping with our basic message of focusing on
strengths. People often do not appreciate their strengths because much of the
feedback they have received through their lives has been about what they
failed to do, deficiencies they have, or mistakes they have made. One way of
having people more fully comprehend their strengths is for the organization
to provide frequent feedback to them. Most feedback can be framed as sug-
gestions, ideas to consider, or things the person might wish to think about.
For many people, that is all that is required.
There is, on the other hand, value in people being able to deliver difficult
messages to each other in a constructive way. Possibly the most common fail-
ing we see in executives is an unwillingness to confront performance issues
with people. They are so afraid of hurting the other person’s feelings and so
afraid that the relationship will be damaged that they avoid any such discus-
sion. Performance of the person often continues to spiral downward until the
time comes when the manager has no alternative but to terminate him. Then
comes the weird conversation in which the subordinate says, “Why didn’t you