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\n\t\tOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.\t<\/p>\n
An email arrived this summer with the subject line \u201cMagic Key Holder, your Magic Key pass expires in one month.\u201d It invited me to renew before my expiration date of Sept. 17.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been a pass holder since 2018, first through the Annual Passport program and then through Magic Key, which replaced it in 2021<\/a>. This past year I held the Inspire Key, the top tier, at $1,749. I\u2019ve stayed at Disney\u2019s Grand Californian. I\u2019ve booked guided tours at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. I\u2019ve eaten and shopped in the parks.<\/p>\n I decided more than six months ago that I wasn\u2019t renewing my pass. My last visit was December 20. I still love Disneyland, and I plan to go once a year with my parents.<\/p>\n The part of the email that stayed with me was the timing. It was tied to a date on my contract. It had nothing to do with anything I did or stopped doing. If they had solicited my feedback earlier and not just assumed I would renew my pass, they might have changed my mind.<\/p>\n In my work coaching tech leaders, I watch the same thing happen with feedback. Leaders build a feedback process, put it on a schedule and receive information too late to actually act upon it. Here are three timing problems to fix if you want honest feedback from your team while you can still use it.<\/p>\n One of my clients found out days before his latest product launch that his team wasn\u2019t going to hit their deadline. He came to our session frustrated with them for not telling him sooner. I asked what he had done to create a way for them to tell him the launch was falling behind schedule.<\/p>\n He had been checking in, but the problem was when. He asked for updates late in the cycle \u2014 after the plan was already set \u2014 because that was his habit, and he accepted what he heard at face value because it matched what he expected. He didn\u2019t give his team any other way to raise a concern before it became a crisis.<\/p>\n We changed his check-in cadence. He started checking in earlier, well before the plan was locked in, and he stopped assuming projects would take the length of time he had in his head, asking his direct reports directly instead.<\/p>\n Most of his launches have gone out on time since. For the ones that fell behind, he knew far enough in advance to get ahead of disaster.<\/p>\n More importantly, he avoided having to tell his executive team and the customer that he was going to be late, which was the part that frustrated him most.<\/p>\n Years ago, a boss of mine asked our department to complete a written feedback exercise on every colleague. I was on my way out the door at the time, so I declined to participate. Formal feedback about people I was leaving, delivered in my final week, wasn\u2019t going to change anything for them. I also didn\u2019t want their last impression of me to be a critique that was headed for their employee file.<\/p>\n The exercise was reasonable. My issue was the timing, since the results would land after I was gone.<\/p>\n Annual reviews and exit surveys work the same way. If you wait until your staff submits a form in June or December, you\u2019ll just get a summary of decisions people have already made, and you\u2019ll have no way to change course.<\/p>\n You have to ask yourself whether what you learn will still change the outcome. When the answer is no, you\u2019re just keeping records.<\/p>\n Another client was promoted multiple times, from senior engineer to vice president. His title kept changing, but the way people treated him stayed where he started. He noticed it most when former peers, now his direct reports, kept taking questions to his boss instead of to him.<\/p>\n We decided that it was best for him to set up a series of direct conversations with each person now reporting to him. He opened with language like this: \u201cI recognize our working relationship has shifted. In this capacity, I need to give you feedback as your manager rather than as a peer. How would you like to receive that feedback?\u201d<\/em> Then he asked the reverse: How did they want to give feedback to him?<\/p>\n He did this before anything had gone wrong, which is what made it work. Sorting out how feedback moves between people is a much easier conversation when there\u2019s nothing at stake.<\/p>\n Within a few months, his team was bringing issues to him first, instead of going to his boss.<\/p>\n I tell my clients they have a choice: You can be frustrated that the feedback you want isn\u2019t reaching you, or you can go get it.<\/p>\n Getting useful feedback means asking earlier and asking more often. Ask at a time when people can still act on what you say, then pay attention to what shows up. You\u2019ve got this!<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n An email arrived this summer with the subject line \u201cMagic Key Holder, your Magic Key pass expires in one month.\u201d It invited me to renew before my expiration date of Sept. 17.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a pass holder since 2018, first through the Annual Passport program and then through Magic Key, which replaced it in 2021<\/a>. This past year I held the Inspire Key, the top tier, at $1,749. I\u2019ve stayed at Disney\u2019s Grand Californian. I\u2019ve booked guided tours at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. I\u2019ve eaten and shopped in the parks.<\/p>\n I decided more than six months ago that I wasn\u2019t renewing my pass. My last visit was December 20. I still love Disneyland, and I plan to go once a year with my parents.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nAsk hard questions while plans can still change<\/h2>\n
Don\u2019t make feedback a once-a-year thing<\/h2>\n
Set expectations before problems arise<\/h2>\n
Final thoughts on getting more honest feedback from your team<\/h2>\n
Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n
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