Happy Sunday Everyone:
Does anyone else feel like they need a vacation from December? If I could find someone to pay me to be a professional eater and drinker I believe I’d say I found my calling, I do it so well!!
As we end the year out and start to focus on 2020 we find ourselves doing business planning, goal setting, etc….My highest level theme for our team is to simply be the best lender we’ve ever been in 2020. We’re not focused on being the biggest, we’re focused on being the best and there is a lot of detail that goes into what qualifies as “the best” (which I’ll not go into here). Why am I bringing this up? In order to find out what makes us the best, we need to find out what doesn’t make us the best, which requires honest feedback, which is the point of this email. I’ve been calling/meeting with my business partners and asking them two very simple questions, what is it that you absolutely love about working us? What is one thing you would change or find frustrating in working with us? and “nothing” isn’t an option. I’m demanding feedback.
Honest feedback and our ability to internalize it and respond to it is the cornerstone for positive change and evolution. I mentioned my business partner communication above but this works for everything. Granted it could be a very dangerous question to ask Kim one thing she finds frustrating about me, but as it relates to our businesses, it’s something we need to focus on more and more. It’s not just out bound to our business partners, it’s internal with our teams and our organizations as a whole, from the top down, and the bottom up. We need to get more excited about constructive feedback and look at it as something other than a personal attack on us. When we can do this, and the feedback is coming from a place of care, not criticism, it opens up the gates for positive change. These conversations up front are as awkward as can be but the more we have them the more it becomes a part of our growth. I wish you could have seen my family room at our first team off site when I asked each person to go around the table and tell me one thing I could do to be a better leader to the team, now they LOVE giving me this feedback…and I love hearing it.
Here are two examples from my favorite books, and 1 new podcast regarding this topic:
1. Ray Dalio-“Principals”, Created the largest hedge fund in the world (personal net worth 17 billion), and more importantly is used as a case study in every business school on how to run a company. His #1 theme is called “radical transparency”. “Meaningful relationships and meaningful work are mutually reinforcing, especially when supported by radical truth and radical transparency”.
2. Trillion Dollar Coach: Bill Campbell. Personal business coach to every top silicon valley exec you can think of, including founders of Google and Steve Jobs. “Not surprisingly when Google conducted a study to determine the factors behind high-performing teams, psychological safety came out at the top of the list [1]. The common notions that the best teams are made up of people with complementary skill sets or similar personalities were disproven; the best teams are the ones with the most psychological safety, And that starts with trust.”
3. Podcast last week: Tim Ferriss interviewing Adam Grant: PHD Organizational Psychology, Top 10 most influential people on corporate culture. My takeaway-he has a personal challenge board for himself. This is a formal list of people he goes to get constructive feedback on all ideas before implementation.
This is getting too long but net net…bigger people have bigger conversations. Bigger conversations involve constructive feedback for personal/professional betterment. The more we can take the chip off our shoulders, open our ears and seek counsel from those we trust/respect, the more development will take place, and the better we will be for it. Side note-if you’re someone being trusted to advise, you better take the responsibility seriously and understand it’s a high honor.
Have a great week ahead!