{"id":442,"date":"2017-12-01T06:48:06","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T06:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/danielvlopes238992071.wordpress.com\/2017\/12\/01\/close-the-loop-the-critical-principle-of-good-leadership\/"},"modified":"2023-02-09T20:12:00","modified_gmt":"2023-02-10T04:12:00","slug":"close-the-loop-the-critical-principle-of-good-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canopy.is\/blog\/2017\/12\/01\/close-the-loop-the-critical-principle-of-good-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Close the loop: The critical principle of good leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You can\u2019t just make the call if you want to be a good leader\u200a\u2014\u200ayou\u2019ve got to explain it.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Leadership is about making the call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or, at least that\u2019s what we seem to think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We seem to think leadership is about making the complex decision. As captain of the ship, you survey the seas\u200a\u2014\u200awhat your board is telling you, what your customers are telling you, what the market is telling you, what your employees are telling you\u200a\u2014\u200aand steer the ship in a certain direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sure, that\u2019s part of leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the other part is explaining<\/em> to your crew why you\u2019re headed in that direction in the first place. Making the call is only half the battle\u200a\u2014\u200athe other half is communicating the call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We don\u2019t always do this as leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We forget to pull back the curtain and explain why we\u2019re staying the course. We forget to share why we\u2019re not acting on some feedback received. We forget to say how a certain decision came to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leadership is making the call\u2026 but explaining the call, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Explaining why you\u2019re not doing something\u200a\u2014\u200aor what I like to call \u201cclosing the loop\u201d\u200a\u2014\u200ais one of the most effective ways to cultivate an open, honest work environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can pose all the questions you want in surveys, have one-on-ones with each of your employees, gather their input at an all-hands meeting\u2026 But it\u2019s all moot if you don\u2019t close the loop and say what you\u2019re doing or not<\/em> doing with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you receive a piece of feedback that isn\u2019t practical or doesn\u2019t align with the company\u2019s direction, tell your employees that. Expose your decision-making process. If you don\u2019t, employees will wonder, \u201cWhat ever happened to that idea I suggested?\u201d They\u2019ll assume that you\u2019re not open to receiving new ideas, and they\u2019ll hesitate to bring up feedback the next time around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember speaking with a CEO earlier this year, and she told me how she\u2019d hired an external consultant who conducted an culture survey with her team. However, she didn\u2019t tell her employees what she was going to do with the responses, or how it was going to guide any of their leadership team\u2019s decisions. She had the survey deployed. And then, silence on her end as the CEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result wasn\u2019t good. Employees saw weeks go by, and wondered what happened to the survey responses. They felt left in the dark, and confused about what was going on. The CEO eventually heard through the grapevine from an employee that some folks were worried that they were gearing up to fire a bunch of people\u200a\u2014\u200awhich wasn\u2019t true at all!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She had just been so focused on trying to digest the survey results as the CEO and create a plan of action, she\u2019d forgotten to tell her team that\u2019s what she was doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, her employees had assumed something completely different when they didn\u2019t hear from her about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not closing the loop was costly for this CEO. She had to do some damage control, and rebuild trust with her team. She had to state clearly: \u201cHere\u2019s how the leadership team is processing the information, here\u2019s how we want to use it, and we\u2019ll let the team know on X date when we move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hindsight being 20\/20, this CEO wishes she would have better explained<\/em> her call, instead of just being heads-down and in-the-weeds trying to make<\/em> the call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She wishes she\u2019d closed the loop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s all learn from this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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