Steve Jobs was a genius, and he inspired people to reach terrific results.
The speech at Stanford in 2005 is one of the most motivational pitches in Mankind’s history.
However, the great Steve revealed many negative attitudes in the management of people.
I am a CEO, and probably Steve Jobs was a model of inspiration in creativity and results. Thanks to the organizational culture, I am building a company where talent activation is at the center.
Therefore, I need to understand what others see about me, which I am not aware of.
I have had a stroke of incredible luck in my life: understanding early enough the value of receiving feedback.
It was 2019. I realized that as a CEO, I could charge a coach to collect feedback for me by interviewing people.
My coach interviewed ten people in my network.
I will share the exact words of the five feedbacks that, in hindsight, have changed me the most.
But feedback is underrated.
Why?
Because you have lots behind you are not aware of.
Here is a model that explains the importance of feedback.
The Johari Windows
Have you ever had exchanges with someone where a sudden level of misunderstanding arises?
Do you ever get the feeling that others don’t understand you?
There is a reason: people have different points of view.
Accepting that others see something about us that we don’t see is the first step in growing as an individual and part of society.
There is a potent tool to achieve this, called feedback.
When people enter a relationship where one person gives feedback to another, here comes the light.
To better understand this concept, you can use the Johari Window. This tool is a 2×2 matrix with two dimensions:
- How much of us is visible to others.
- How much of us is visible to ourselves.
From these two dimensions, four quadrants are born.
Quadrant 1: Arena — known to oneself and others.
These are things about yourself that you know and that others also know.
For example, visible things related to your appearance or explicit communication.
Quadrant 2: Façade — unknown to oneself and known to others.
You know things about yourself but do not want others to know
For example, those related to the private sphere.
Quadrant 3: Blind spot — known to oneself and unknown to others.
These are things about you that you cannot perceive but that others perceive better than you do.
Quadrant 4: Unknown — unknown to oneself and unknown to others.
Information is unknown to both you and your interlocutor.
They rarely emerge over the surface.
Feedback is a powerful tool because it’s the only way to increase our self-awareness, with people watching us most often.
These 5 feedbacks changed my game.
Here are the five feedbacks that, in hindsight, have changed me the most.
At least, in my opinion!
- “He listens but trying to answer with his reasoning and bring you back to what he said.”
- “He says he wants to delegate, but everything sticks to him. He would like to delegate, but people next to him he doesn’t do everything exactly as he would like.”
- “He should control aggression in the first moment. He scares people. They get agitated and try to please him to defend himself. His way does not solve the problem.”
- “He is disappointed if expectations are unfulfilled.”
- “He needs to improve the sharing of information. He does not share the motivations that led him to his decisions with people. If people felt part of the decision, they would contribute more critically. He is convinced to share, but that does not correspond to reality. “
Follow-up
Boom!
With all these words, I felt wounded. But I am the one in charge of how I want to express myself.
So I decided to grow Empathy as a skill.
How?
Conclusions
This article started with lots of bias, and I love Steve as a leader.
The point is the way I want to emerge as a People Gardener to trigger talents to create a better world and empathic organizations.