The room is full of your peers, direct reports, customers and management, they have all gathered to hear your spiel. You have practiced this pitch day in and day out, you are prepared, confident, and ready to make a name for yourself. Every hair is in place, the slide deck is flawless, you enter the building fifteen minutes ahead of schedule. The normally stoic receptionist shoots you a sideways smile that is out of character, yet appreciated as the nervousness tries to creep in. 

Entering stage left, all eyes shift in your direction. You have their attention, and they appear to be intrigued and captivated by your presence. As you silently give yourself one last encouraging motivating mental boost, “I am the (wo)man, I got this, these people love me”, you realize the room is quite cold, almost uncomfortably. 

The room isn’t chilly, and the crowd isn’t looking at you to speak. Their faces adorn the same smirk as the receptionist, your sureness quickly turns to doubt and fear.  

You are stark naked. There is no hiding behind an office door, a fancy suit, or a camera. You are completely vulnerable, with all of your imperfections on display.

This nightmare that I don’t wish upon even the most loathed leader boils down to a simple fear of letting our people see and evaluate us without the armor we wear or the walls we construct to protect our position. 

Last week, I prompted my team to not just look at me constructively, but to evaluate and judge my abilities as their leader. The survey was completely anonymous, allowed for zero interpretation of their scoring, and to be honest, terrifying. 

What if they said I was terrible? What if I had been living in a delusional bubble of rainbows and roses? What if the people I have set out to lead, guide, and inspire see me as an obstacle rather than a resource? 

As I anxiously awaited the responses to hit my inbox, I wavered from complete confidence in my abilities to being an utter waste of space and salary. 

The responses pleasantly surprised me. They unanimously rated my leadership abilities higher than I had rated myself in most categories. There were some variances in individual responses, but once averaged together, I had a clear vision of where I excel, and where my team needs me to put in a bit more effort. 

Exposing yourself and inviting uncensored feedback may be the scariest part of this process, but it is certainly not the most impactful. What you do with the results is what matters, it’s what builds trust within your team, and how you gain respect from its members. Acknowledgment without action fuels animosity, resentment, and creates a perception that you as a leader don’t care about the team’s needs, feelings, or opinions. 

Instead: 

• Take the findings you’ve been given and truly take the time to reflect on your leadership style, skills, and abilities. Focusing on patterns and the averages of rating scales will allow you to focus on the most needed areas of improvement, while eliminating any outliers that may be caused by an individual response. 
• Focus first on big impact/low effort categories that your team will see and feel quickly to show that you are holding yourself accountable based on the data.
• Be clear and transparent regarding the actions you are taking to improve to show that you are invested in being a great leader. 
• Follow up. Repeat the feedback loop regularly to continuously increase your skillset and to maintain the trust of your people. 

I challenge my fellow leaders to stand proud (and preferably clothed), without fear of rejection or disapproval. I dare you to let your guard down, be exposed, and welcome the opportunity to get better every day.