How to Make Your Business Better with a 360 Evaluation | Ep. 65 | Business Podcast
Summary
I explain how I use a 360 evaluation to become a better CEO and better leader.
I give you the 3 simple questions to ask and how to set it up in minutes.
Be warned, you need to be able to take some tough love because you might not always get the feedback you think. But, in the end it’s better for you so you can lead your team more effectively and for your business because being a better CEO and leader leads to happier employees, a better product and making more money.
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Hello, friends. Welcome to the show. Today you’re gonna talk about doing 3 60 surveys on yourself to improve your performance in 2021. One of the things I try to do every year I actually forgot last year is to do 3 60 evaluations on myself and getting feedback from everybody. I work with everybody from the companies that I have to the people I work with.
And I started this probably 15 years ago just to reflect on how people perceive me and some possible places where I can improve. I set out to make this really easy for people because if you ask someone to take a 20 minute survey, that’s 20 minutes out of someone’s time. So early on, what I did initially is I came up with the idea of just asking people for words to describe me. Just four simple words, and I actually sent this out. You don’t have to do anything crazy, and it could be a simple is this is I text people that I know, and I was like a Could you give me four words that describe me and I used those four words to say Okay, these are my strengths, and maybe there’s some weaknesses because they didn’t mentioned these things. If they were important, I’ve expanded that to three questions.
So I asked people for words to describe me and then what I do well and where I can improve. Now I want to talk about the improving part a little bit because over the years what I’ve learned is there’s this I don’t know idea in America that if you’re bad at something that you’ve got to go spend all your time working on it. And I think what that actually does is distract from your strength.
And I’m not saying that you shouldn’t improve. So any spouses that are listening out there that say my significant other doesn’t do the dishes and should doesn’t mean that that pushing shouldn’t do the dishes or can’t do that. What I’m saying is there’s fundamentally things in us that we’re probably just not going to be good at, and there’s at some point in your entrepreneur life where you’re gonna have to figure out what you’re good at, and then you’re just going to have to fill the holes and not everybody is built the same.
It doesn’t mean you’re bad. It doesn’t mean you’re not as good. What you really want to do is you wanna be using your strengths to 110% capacity, and I’m exaggerating a little bit on purpose here. But it really is the point, because that is your strength. And then find people who are just as strong as you are in the traits that you have in the things that you’re not. And that’s what’s going to build a very successful team for you and likely build a successful company. So when I say what are my weaknesses? I am looking to improve. If there’s things like,
Hey, you should do the dishes when you put your dish in there or at some point within an hour or whatever that is, I can do that. That’s not a hard thing. If it’s something fundamental in that, uh, Brandon doesn’t ever always give us all the details. Well, that’s not how I manage. I manage with results in mind and let people who we’ve hired figure out what those are because just because I may have a list of things of how I think it should be done one doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the right way to is doesn’t mean I know everything about that and three is at least when I hire people, I want them to be making decisions, and they should be smarter than I am in the areas that they are.
If they’re not, then we are in trouble because then that creates this crazy management situation where everybody is coming back to you for answers and look, some people like that, but it doesn’t scale. It may work for three people, but I can absolutely tell you that when you get to even 10 or 15 or 20 it just won’t scale all day. You’re going to be giving people orders. You certainly an option for you. It’s not recommended. You’ll be exhausted and you won’t get people who can make decisions.
And then when your business scales, you won’t be able to scale because you’ve got this bottleneck, which is you. So can you imagine the people lining up outside your office in the morning trying to get orders of what they’re supposed to do? That the little extreme? But actually I’ve seen that before and it’s a little crazy, so I wouldn’t recommend that. But as it relates to your weaknesses, I think you gotta face those head on and at least be aware so that you can fill them and or if you decide to fix them, come up with a really good plan.
That’s really fast, because the moment you start focusing on what you’re not good at, and if it’s significant and you decide that you’re going to take that on, then you’re actually taking away from your strengths and likely those strengths that got you as an entrepreneur and started to build your business or build your business. And now you’re scaling it. Those are the things that you want to lean into. That’s the magic. I think the other important thing is is to get feedback on yourself. It’s really hard, you know, it’s hard to listen to. Hey, you’re not good at this.
But if you’re not getting that loop and you’re not really in not so many ways harding yourself to be able to take that, then it’s just gonna be hard for you to create a team and to get better at what you dio and you know, you may have a strength that you could even be better at. So in this process, you may learn about that. And you may say, Well, everybody thinks that I’m good at this. I am good at that. I’m going to make that even better. And instead of improving these weaknesses, make your strengths better. And now, Wow, the results would just be extraordinary. So again, do it 3 60 on yourself early this year. And I think you’ll make 2021 a lot better not just for you as a person but also for you as a company again, as a review, the three questions that you can put on Google survey. That’s how easy this is.
You could create this in minutes by using Google Survey, which is totally free. And then you just send that link out and say, Hey, go fill it out is described four words about me that be yourself, and then what will I do? Well, what are my strains on? What are my weaknesses or what can I do better and that’s it. And get that feedback and see what you find. I think you’ll be surprised, good and bad, but I think your business and you personally are gonna be better for it. So good luck. And thank you, friends, for tuning into the show. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate review. We want to hear from you and subscribe. So you don’t miss any of our weekly episodes until the next time. Remember, you are just one business playing away. I’m rooting for your success. We’ll see you soon.
