MIT Sloan Management Review Article on We're Doing CEO Feedback Wrong

Maybe this sounds familiar: Once a year, your company’s leadership team takes an online survey or participates in individual interviews with the board chair or a leadership adviser about the CEO’s strengths and weaknesses. The resulting feedback is analyzed, prioritized, and then delivered to the CEO by the board chair: “You’re great at setting strategy, but your listening skills could be better.” An action plan is created and, with luck, revisited once or twice.

This standard procedure is largely a wasted opportunity. For one, CEOs generally know their strengths and weaknesses pretty well; they’ve been getting input on them for decades. As one CEO privately told me, “I believe in the value of the process for my employees, but frankly, I don’t get a lot out of it myself.”

About the Author

Anand Joshi is the founder of Future Proven, a global leadership advisory firm that specializes in working with CEOs. Previously, he was a managing director at Goldman Sachs and the global head of its Pine Street leadership development programs for senior executives and clients.

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