Employee Feedback: Anonymous Questions hold CEOs accountable

By Ian Richardson, Managing Partner, Richardson & Richardson Consulting LLC

Inspired by Thursday Process with guest Emily Glass, CEO of Syncro

Employee Feedback is difficult to obtain

Sir Richard Branson is famously quoted as saying “If you take care of your employees, they will take care of clients.” For any business at scale, this is a guiding truth, a “north star” if you will. The individuals you have brought onto your team are directly responsible for the individuals that pay you – your client base. Above all else, creating an excellent customer experience must be a strategic focus for any organization to succeed in todays interconnected market place. To do so – an organization must have in place a solid strategy to obtain and measure employee feedback and satisfaction.

 

I’ve run multiple businesses over the past 20 years, and worked with hundreds more. Across all of them, I’ve yet to encounter a leader who says “Oh yeah, getting feedback from our team is a snap – we never have issues with it.” Human Beings are complex creatures, with emotions, behaviors, and responses that are so difficult to unpack and comprehend, there is an entire industry around helping us do so. What if I told you that there is a way  to collect feedback while delivering company updates and alignment activities, while also allowing your organization to help hold you, the principle leader or CEO, accountable?

Anonymous Questions Hold CEOs accountable

One of the best parts of my job is that I get to talk to leaders, entrepreneurs, and executives from all sorts of organizations. I was privileged to host Emily Glass, CEO of Syncro, a RMM and PSA solution focused on the Managed IT Solution Provider (MSP) space on my webinar, Thursday Process. Emily and I were talking about company culture, and she shared an amazing toolset she utilizes at Syncro to help collect feedback from her team on company actions and direction. The best part in my opinion is how the tool can be utilized to help hold her and her leadership team accountable for the decisions they make.

 

Emily speaks more about it below in the linked video, but the key point I took is that by allowing anyone in your organization to ask a question anonymously that is required to be answered in a companywide forum (such as a video call, recorded update, email blast, etc.) by the CEO, you are creating a downward-up accountability chain. You must be able to justify and explain your rationale for your decisions, leading towards better decision making all around. You also gain the benefit of making sure that all team members understand and can align behind your decisions, versus simply “following along.”

Anonymous Questions create honest Employee Feedback

Creating a space where someone can ask a question, around any topic, with guaranteed anonymity, and an ironclad promise of no retaliation or consequence provided to all in writing, creates “safety.” When people feel safe, two things can occur.

1. They can let down their “barriers” and be vulnerable. It takes vulnerability for someone to say “I don’t know” or “I don’t understand” – those statements can be turned against someone to induce feelings of less than, foolishness, inadequacy, and self-loathing.
2. It creates trust. When people are able to be vulnerable, and have that vulnerability honored and respected, it builds trust. That trust compounds over time, to where employees will feel comfortable bringing proactive feedback, ideas, and other items that only improve the business’ operations and performance.

 

With vulnerability and trust in an organization’s culture, you’ll find performance increases and employee turnover and burnout will decrease. You’ll start to gain exponential improvements in focus areas, and it will be far easier to retain the top talent that drives success.

 

If you’re finding that communication to your team or customers is less than ideal, wondering if your leadership team might be misunderstanding each other, or trying to figure out how to get started on improving communication, Richardson & Richardson can help. Check out our case studies for stories of organizations that we’ve assisted with similar issues and download our white papers for deep dives on tools you can use in your organization. If you’re wondering where to start, book a complimentary session with one of the Richardsons today to come up with a plan on how to move forward.