feedback

Surround Yourself with Courageous Truth-Tellers, Not Sycophantic “Yes Men”

As leaders rise through the ranks, they often find themselves increasingly surrounded solely by supporters who agree with everything they say and crave their approval. This insular echo chamber effect can lead to dangerously ill-informed decisions and stagnated growth if left unchecked. Here’s how to proactively ensure you have access to hard truths.

The Perils of Insular Leadership Devoid of Dissent

When executives and senior managers hear only positive feedback, validation, and endorsements of their perspectives, several risks emerge:

  • You become overconfident in your own ideas, strategies, and capabilities since no one questions your thinking or challenges your assumptions. Blind spots grow unchecked.

  • You lack access to diverse points of view that could profoundly broaden your worldview and leadership mindset. Information diversity fuels innovation.

  • You stop developing critical thinking skills and stop growing as a leader without candid critique stress testing your logic and mental models against reality. Intellectual muscles atrophy.

  • You begin making poorly informed, suboptimal decisions without the benefit of devil’s advocates who surface smart counter perspectives you need to hear but don’t know exist.

  • People on your team start withholding constructive dissent and feedback that could dramatically help you, the leadership team, and the entire organization out of fear of potential repercussions of honesty. Truth-tellers become an endangered species.

Leaders who surround themselves solely with supporters telling them what they want to hear quickly lose touch and perspective. Their growth stagnates. They sow the seeds of their own demise.

Proactive Tactics to Continuously Elicit Unfiltered Feedback and Input

Here are some intentional tactics and strategies to solicit unfiltered input and insight, even if difficult to hear:

  • Carefully examine your own reactions when someone questions or disagrees with you. Do you become defensive, irritable, or feel the urge to override them? Make sure you truly seek first to listen and deeply understand dissenting perspectives before reacting. Remain open to being wrong.

  • Explicitly reward contrarian thinking and constructive pushback from your team. Make it safe for people to civilly and thoughtfully challenge your assumptions without fear of negative repercussions. Invite dissenting views.

  • During meetings, proactively ask probing questions like “what are we missing here?” and “what are potential downsides or risks we haven’t fully considered?” to draw out objections and ensure all perspectives are aired. Disagreement shouldn’t feel threatening.

  • Occasionally poll team members privately to surface concerns, doubts, or ideas they may not be comfortable sharing publicly yet. Anonymous input often highlights blind spots.

  • Bring in external advisors, coaches, consultants, and subject matter experts with differentiated thinking and outsider perspectives into key meetings and decisions. They ask fresh questions and are unafraid to challenge groupthink.

  • Carefully and open-mindedly read anonymous employee engagement survey feedback. Look for patterns and recurring themes. Then publicly share key takeaways and actions to build trust in the process.

  • Watch for the clear warning signs of groupthink taking root such as lack of dissent, desire for harmony overriding realistic debate, and people self-censoring themselves from deviating from perceived consensus. Then actively encourage team members to take on the contrarian role.

Hearing critical feedback and accepting that your initial thinking may be flawed or incomplete is a sign of substantial strength and wisdom, not weakness. As leaders, we cannot grow and reach our potential without truths we may not like or want to hear. But we must hear them.

Who Will You Empower to Tell You the Hard Things You Need to Hear?

Surrounding yourself with emotionally intelligent team members armed with the courage and confidence to tactfully provide contrarian perspectives represents an incredible competitive advantage for any leader committed to continuous improvement. Allowing dissent helps ensure blind spots don’t devolve into pitfalls.

If you need guidance making it psychologically safe for people to constructively disagree and push back without fear at your organization, executive coaching provides external support perfectly tailored to your culture, leadership style and emotional intelligence blind spots. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you want to discuss how we could potentially collaborate. With the right team around you willing to speak hard truths, the sky is the limit on what you can achieve. But first you must show you can handle the truth, even when it’s uncomfortable.

Lessons Learned from the Worst Performance Review I've Ever Received

Performance reviews can make or break trust between managers and employees. Early in my career, I received a shockingly negative review that taught me invaluable lessons on ineffective management and review practices.

The Buildup of Frustration

This review occurred in early 2020, assessing my 2019 performance. I had already accepted a new job offer, after losing trust for months due to unfulfilled promotion promises and shrinking autonomy.

For years I had been an engaged agile coach, earning consistent praise from partners. I eagerly anticipated finally being officially promoted to Scrum Master, as my responsibilities had grown extensively. However, the promotion was continually delayed with vague, shifting expectations about my “readiness.”

Meanwhile, I was no longer allowed to facilitate valuable workshops and design that had clear impact. This raised concerns about the organization's commitment to agile principles.

Also, an arrogant, inexperienced new Business Analyst rejected my mentoring and complained about me behind my back all year. I later learned he had been undermining me to my new, also inexperienced, manager the entire time.

Stellar Historical Ratings

My past annual ratings had been:

  • 2018: Exceeded Expectations

  • 2017: Met Expectations

  • 2016: Far Exceeded Expectations

  • 2015: Far Exceeded Expectations

I had no major duty changes in 2019 to warrant a dramatic downward shift. I had a track record of effectively onboarding new hires.

The Devastating Negative Review

Yet my 2019 rating was a disappointing “Inconsistently Met Expectations” and performance improvement plan. This contradicted extensive positive feedback all year from my manager during 1-on-1s.

The vague review appeared disconnected from my actual contributions, blaming me for unclear issues I was never told about. It came across as a political move to justify denying me a deserved promotion.

Team members were shocked, saying I should find a new job based on this alone. I felt betrayed after sacrificing for the team.

Better Approaches to Performance Management

This experience demonstrated common review pitfalls managers should avoid:

  • Don’t surprise employees - raise concerns early so people can improve.

  • Ensure ratings clearly align with evidence of contributions.

  • Consider context like shifting goals that affect performance.

  • Discuss feedback directly rather than venting to other managers.

  • Ratings should reflect ongoing conversations, not just annual judgments.

As a coach, I now champion transparent development discussions throughout the year, not delayed disappointment. Reviews should motivate, not alienate.

Key Lessons Learned

While this situation caused frustration, it shaped my leadership philosophy of proactive communication, compassion, and transparency. By learning from other’s missteps, we avoid repeating them ourselves.

Does your review process feel supportive of growth? I advise leaders on building trust and maximizing potential through positive management practices. Please reach out if you need any guidance - we rise together when processes focus on people, not bureaucracy.