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By Neeru Sharma

The Power of Feedback for Leaders

In the dynamic landscape of high-growth mid-sized businesses, companies constantly face the organizational challenges of growth, particularly during inflection points. According to a recent study by McKinsey, investors attribute about 65% of failures in their portfolios to people and organizational issues[1]. According to the study, CEOs and teams must adapt their structures, culture, and leadership as they mature.

Effective leadership, therefore, is about creating a culture that fosters growth, innovation, and trust. As companies scale and grow rapidly, leaders across the organization must step up to navigate the increased complexity of scale. CEOs should regularly assess their leadership teams’ capacity, capability, and willingness to grow.

Multiple researchers have established a high correlation between business performance and leadership effectiveness. As businesses grow and scale, so does the need for more effective leaders and for existing leaders to be more effective.

How do we do that?

The first step is to understand what’s going on. 

The first step to improving leadership effectiveness is understanding what’s really happening in your organization. Are your leaders achieving the results you want?

Leadership isn’t just about effort—it’s about impact. Are your leaders driving meaningful progress or simply maintaining the status quo? True leadership effectiveness is measured by business outcomes, company culture, innovation, and employee engagement.

Key Questions to Ask:

  • Are strategic goals being met?
  • Are teams engaged and motivated?
  • Is the organization growing in a sustainable way?

This information already exists within the system. Landing on the most effective way to gather this information, or reflect the feedback is key.

How Leadership Style Impacts Your Organization

Leadership effectiveness goes beyond hitting targets—it influences the entire work environment. Are your leaders inspiring, supportive, and driving growth? Or are they creating burnout and disengagement?

Ask yourself:

  • Do employees feel motivated and valued?
  • Are teams thriving under strong guidance?
  • Or are they exhausted, frustrated, and disengaged?

According to Gallup’s latest engagement survey, only 15% of employees are actively engaged at work, while a staggering 62% feel disengaged. That means the way your leaders show up directly impacts your company’s success or stagnation.

In the absence of a well-designed process to deliver feedback to the system – feedback is often haphazard, non-existent or unhelpful. I have even seen it being destructive for the leader and their confidence.

If we continue to lead the way we have, we will continue to get the results we are getting – or worse, because growth in those circumstances or environments may not be sustainable.

To evolve, we must embrace change and adapt our approach.

Next, you have to understand why it’s going on, and what we can do about it.

Without a good feedback mechanism, some leaders remain unaware of their reputation or potentially career-derailing behaviors that can be managed, corrected, and positively influenced.

Understanding how your leaders are perceived by their team, peers, and stakeholders can be a game-changer. Proactively inviting feedback from various sources opens the window to blind spots that busy leaders otherwise may not be aware of. The impact that culture, organizational structure, and other systemic influences play on the results we are getting now will also emerge.

Side note:

In a recent study conducted by The Leadership Circle, an interesting relationship emerged between a leader’s self-perception and the aggregate perception of others who work closely with the leader.

The study revealed that leaders whose businesses were viewed as underperforming usually tended to overestimate their effectiveness on every dimension being measured.

Conversely, those leaders who manage the businesses viewed as the highest performing have a tendency to be more humble in their self-assessments.

This is consistent with the Level 5 leader described by Jim Collins in Good to Great

A well-designed and carefully implemented 360-degree feedback process can support the organization in understanding these key leadership drivers.

Now that we know what’s going on – and why – we can begin to design a development plan for the leader(s) that supports the overall business growth goals.

Receiving feedback on its own is harsh. And possibly unhelpful. Any successful feedback program should include a debrief in a safe, confidential, and constructive manner. A development plan that supports the leader’s strengths and identifies key areas of development will help identify the leader’s growth edges and measure the program’s impact. If the 360-degree feedback program is designed well, leaders will see patterns in the feedback, they will understand why they react in a certain way, and they will also see the paradoxes in play.  

Working with a qualified and experienced professional to debrief the results, leaders can develop a clear development plan, with milestones and key performance indicators that can me measured.

How 360-Degree Feedback Works

The process involves gathering feedback from a variety of sources, including direct reports, peers, supervisors, and even external stakeholders like investors or partners. Thus, the name 360-degree feedback. 360-degree feedback is anonymous and constructive when done correctly, ensuring honesty and candor. Leaders receive a well-rounded view of their performance, highlighting what they excel at and areas where they might need support or development.

A well-designed program will be based on researched-backed proven leadership traits and dimensions. It often involves a set of questions that the leaders and others answer. The questions may be online or via a face-to-face interview. Feedback is always confidential, thus ensuring respondents are candid and honest with their feedback.

After the feedback has been gathered, it is analyzed and debriefed with the leader via a safe, confidential coaching session with a trained professional. It’s important that the feedback is delivered in a safe space to ensure understanding, analysis, and insights for development.

Improving Leadership Effectiveness

In today’s fast-evolving business landscape, leadership effectiveness is not just about authority or decision-making—it’s about influence, adaptability, and the ability to inspire and empower others.

According to a 2017 study by GBS, just one ineffective leader could cost the company over $126,000 annually due to low productivity, high turnover, and lack of focus[2].

Unlocking growth for businesses is not just about customer acquisition, sales and product development. It is as much about unlocking the potential for innovation and impact within the organization by leveraging our people’s potential through effective leadership.

Neeru is the Founder and CEO of Marya Leadership Academy, an international coaching and leadership development firm. She has over 2 decades of experience working with leaders at Fortune 500, Startups, venture funds, and Non-Profits to develop and scale leadership capacity. Neeru is also a professor of Leadership and Innovation & Entrepreneurship at one of the leading Universities in North Texas. Our customized 360-degree feedback programs are designed to help high-growth businesses unlock their full potential by fostering transparency, alignment, and growth.

Neeru can be reached at neeru@maryaleadership.com or https://www.linkedin.com/in/neeru-marya-sharma/

[1] https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/scaling-up-how-founder-ceos-and-teams-can-go-beyond-aspiration-to-ascent

[2] https://www.gbscorporate.com/blog/the-cost-of-poor-leadership-on-your-revenue-and-culture

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