Last week I had the chance to listen to a wonderful presentation by Denisa. She was a participant in a leadership program I delivered, and she was giving a “things I learned presentation.” This presentation once again reminded me that leadership development can be learned.
Denisa clearly articulated how she took the principles she learned, applied them, and transformed a struggling team into a high performing unit. Her manager was in the audience and publically praised her great work.
One of the leadership tools Denisa used was the start, stop, continue model. This is a simple assessment tool that asked three questions.
- Start – What do we want to start doing?
- Stop – What do we want to stop doing?
- Continue – What do we want to continue doing?
Denisa used this framework in a slightly different way. She asked her team to assess her performance as a leader. Here is how it worked:
- She invited her team to a meeting and asked the members to give her feedback by answering the three “start, stop, continue” questions about her performance as a leader.
- She provided flip chart paper and markers.
- Then she left the room.
She wanted the team to have the freedom to share openly without her influence. Once the team finished, they presented the feedback. Denisa listened closely and asked the team to clarify a couple of points. She then took this data and started taking action steps to get even better as a leader.
The start, stop, continue feedback model can be used in a number of ways to assess situations, people, and performance. You did a great job, Denisa, taking the risk and openly asking for this feedback.
