Passionate About Feedback

01/16/2008

Just to be alive is a grand thing.
Agatha Christie

Fortune magazine (October 1, 2007) recently interviewed CEOs of the "world's best companies" about leadership development. One of the keys to success pointed out by these executives was feedback and support. Here is how Fortune summarized their views:

"It's the most elementary principle of learning: If you don't know how you've performed, you don't learn and you soon stop caring. Yet at many companies, feedback is rare; candid feedback even rarer. The companies on our list combine frequent, honest assessment with plenty of mentoring and support. So when people are told what skills they need to improve, they're also offered programs or coaching for doing it. Many of the CEOs of these companies, when asked how they reached the top, tell similar stories about the importance of a few key mentors who consistently evaluated them. Whirlpool's [Jeff] Fettig is typical: 'I am here today in part due to a handful of people who, before it was in vogue, provided coaching and mentoring to me early in my career. That helped me to develop.' At Natura Cosmeticos, Brazil's largest cosmetics company, emerging leaders may even shadow a high-level executive for three to six months."

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