THANK-YOU NOTE

Feedback is an important gift for leaders. They can measure its value partly by the increased self-awareness it gives them. They have learned something about themselves that they didn't know before or something about their impact on others that they didn't realize before.

For leaders, communicating their appreciation to those from whom they have received feedback can also be an opportunity to market the changes they are making and to invite further feedback and assessment.

One possibility is to gather the people who have completed a written assessment of you, perhaps as part of a 360-degree evaluation given for developmental rather than appraisal purposes, and tell them something like this:

I appreciate the feedback you have given me. You told me I am doing well at gathering and disseminating information, and I am glad to know that because I recognize that being an effective conduit for information is an essential part of my role as a manager. You also told me that I could use some work on being more emotionally accessible, and I am committed to doing so.

I am going to leave the room, and I ask that one of you write on this flipchart some suggestions that you as a group have for helping me to achieve my goal. I want you to know that I am really going to work hard on becoming more emotionally accessible because it is important to me. I'll come back to the room in thirty minutes and read your suggestions. You can just leave them on the chart for me, or if you want, you're welcome to stick around and talk about it, but you don't have to.