How do you know if you’re doing a good job as a CEO?
I’m sure there are days where you feel on top of the world, and other days where you feel trampled by it.
A common mistake CEOs make is the assumption that they are leading well and their team loves working at their company without validation. Regardless of genetics or skills, nobody is fully equipped from the start to be a CEO, which means it’s an ongoing journey of personal development.
Instead of preaching great customer feedback and positive management for your teams without holding yourself to the same standard, be the standard by leading with your own review process. It’s better to do it internally and course correct versus finding out on Glassdoor.
I was inspired to share this process from a newsletter written by Brian Halligan - Co-Founder of Hubspot and former CEO. Companies tend to overthink feedback processes. I found this one to be simple, straight forward and effective.
Here is his writing on the method he and his co-founder used for 360 feedback:
“Once a year we had my co-founder, Dharmesh Shah, do a 360 review for me that was like pure gold. His method is highly replicable. He basically gave an NPS survey to about 25 folks up and down the org asking two questions:
(a) “Your likelihood to recommend Brian as the CEO of HubSpot" & (b) “Why?” He took the answers to those questions and put together a 20 page document for me. He found the themes in the feedback (people wrote novellas) and grouped them together with example quotes to back up the theme. For example, “Brian is good at setting and selling the vision for HubSpot” would be the theme and then he’d pick out 6 or 7 direct quotes that backed this up. …Now, not all the themes were positive like that one. The first 10 pages were my “feature” themes and the back 10 pages were my “bug” themes. I was convinced I was the world’s best CEO after page 10 and the world’s worst CEO after page 20! I shared the feedback with the company and board in a document that was my own “performance plan.”
Here is how you can use this process.
The 360 CEO Feedback Process
- Get your co-founder, chief of staff, or COO (whoever you would consider your partner or right hand person) to create an NPS (net promoter score) style survey to give to team members. To do this, you should probably have 5 employees minimum, as in his example, he gave the survey to 25 people at all levels of the organization.
- The first question is done in a 1-10 NPS style format. Here is an article on NPS if you haven’t used it before. It asks, “How likely are you to recommend ______ as a CEO. The second question is “Why?” Ask the employee to write it all and be as honest as possible. They can remain anonymous if they like. They do not need to have both good and bad feedback. It is entirely up to them what they would like to include.
- Based on feedback, have your partner choose themes. I recommend at least 3 on the positive side and 3 on the needs improvement side. Add supporting quotes underneath each theme in the report.
- Receive the document as the CEO and review it. Once you have, share the feedback with your board, coach, other co-founders, and company.
- Do it each year or when you feel it is necessary.
An example of what it could look like:
John Smith 360 CEO Feedback
Keep Doing (1 example)
John is a great communicator
“I appreciate the way he thinks out loud which encourages us to do the same and boost collaboration”
“In our 1 on 1’s he ensures I am clear on what we need to do to find success”
“John leads meetings in a way that is inclusive and effective.”
Keep Improving (1 example)
John has his head in the clouds
“I appreciate the vision that John has, but sometimes it seems he is out of touch with the day to day of the company.”
“There’s a lot happening and a lot of promise, but not a ton of follow through.”
“I’ll climb the mountain with John, but I need to know how first.”
Odds are you're new to the role of CEO, so why assume you would be great in a role you've never had before? Find out what's working and what isn't through this process and begin showing your team you're serious about being a great CEO.
With purpose,
KC Holiday
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