How should leaders solicit and respond to feedback about themselves?

Alan Chang · Jan 5, 2026

If you assume the person giving you negative feedback has your best interests at heart and it isn't personal, you can absorb any feedback however harsh

36:38 Assume good intent and you can absorb any feedback

Jeff Seibert · Nov 22, 2023

CEO accountability comes from culture rather than individual feedback channels — running the company on weekly sprints with a full-team Friday retro of 'anchors and breezes' normalizes feedback and 1% weekly improvement

You can constantly fall into the trap of thinking you're getting feedback when you're not, so the ritual makes feedback conversations widely recognized as what the company wants

10:46 Weekly anchors and breezes retro ritual builds ceo accountability through culture

Brian Halligan · Jan 15, 2024

Running an annual NPS-style 360 review on the CEO — scored by board, executives, frontline staff, customers and partners, with verbatim quotes synthesised into features and bugs — is an extremely valuable leadership practice

It surfaced an infinite number of things he was bad at in well-organised form, and HubSpot has continued the practice with the new CEO

22:18 Annual 360 review scored by all stakeholders with verbatim quotes is highly valuable

Matt Mochary · Mar 9, 2020

Asking for written feedback at the end of every interaction — and then declaring and taking action on it — is the one tool the speaker uses to create trust and intimacy quickly

When people see they can actually change how you behave toward them, any discomfort they hold can be eliminated by voicing it; trust forms fastest when real discomforts are surfaced and then acted on, proving you walk the talk

26:25 Solicit written feedback after every interaction and visibly act

Matt Mochary · Mar 9, 2020

You should only accept feedback that resonates with you; you must acknowledge and reflect back all feedback but are not obliged to act on it

If you had to accept every piece of feedback, that would be tyranny of the feedback giver and a terrible world to live in

27:54 Acknowledge all feedback but act only on what resonates