How to get honest leadership feedback from your team

Executive overview

Most leaders have a blind spot: their team perceives them differently than they perceive themselves. Standard 360 reviews generate noise without insight. Leadership assessment interviews — a structured conversation where you explicitly invite unfiltered feedback — close that gap fast.

Ask not just what one person thinks, but what they think everyone thinks about you.

Running the leadership assessment interview

• Tell the person directly: you're developing as a leader and need honest, not diplomatic, feedback
• Ask what others perceive, not just their individual view — this surfaces collective reputation
• Start with strengths: probe deeply, don't deflect or be modest, take it in fully
• Move to weaknesses: create safety for honesty, keep probing
• Some feedback will sting; most conversations are easier than expected

Acting on what you hear

• Separate feedback into two buckets: things worth working on, and mismatched expectations to address directly
• For mismatched expectations, name the gap and let people self-select out if it matters to them
• Not all valid feedback needs to be acted on — owning the choice not to change is also leadership
• The goal is to clean up relationships and advance yourself, not to fix everything