What Steve Jobs did to get the best feedback from employees

What Steve Jobs did to get the best feedback from employeesWhat Steve Jobs did to get the best feedback from employeesNo one likes telling the boss bad news, but when youre a manager, your success depends on knowing what your employees know and think. You cannot be surrounded by yes-people. So how do you get honest feedback from reticent employees? To get the best feedback, take note from Apple co-founder and Pixar former CEO Steve Jobs approach to it - dont make feedback an optional question, make it a demand of every meeting that each employee is responsible for answering.In meetings, ask an employee whats working, whats notIn a recent Medium post,Andy Raskin, a San Francisco-based strategic messaging employee,recounted a conversation he overheard between a Famous CEO and a Young CEO about Jobs strategy for feedback.When Jobs was in Pixar meetings, he needed to get caught up quickly, so he would make a point to meet with multiple departments.He would have to figure out where his a ttention was needed really fast, so he would arrange sessions with all the different teams - theCarsteam, the technology team, whatever - so there were a dozen or so people in each one. Then he would point to one person in each session and sayTell me whats not working atPixar,Raskin recounted that the Famous CEO said Jobs did. Then, Jobs would ask other people in the meeting if they agreed with that one employees assessment. Then, he would pick a different employee and ask them what was working at Pixar. Jobs would toggle back and forth between the two questions until he got a sense of what needed to be addressed.Jobs questions work because they are direct requests for transparency. You cannot get out of answering them with a polite yes or no.Its a confrontational approach that may lead to awkward moments, but works if you are confident in your teams abilities.In 1995, when Jobs was asked why he would famously tell employees their work was terrible, he explained that his critiques came from a place of respect for the employee and their potential The most important thing I think you can do for someone whos really good and whos really being counted on is to point out to them when theyre not - when their work isnt good enough. And to do it very clearly and to articulate why and to get them back on track.Kim Scott, a Silicon Valley veteran who is the author of Radical Candor Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity, endorses Jobs approach to feedback as a radically candor one worth adopting.People will often misconstrue radical candor as obnoxious aggression. I have found the leading a team means I have to endure a lot of willing to be hated moments, Scott writes. parte of the reason that I call it radical candor is that its rare. But the other reason is that one often has to resort to extreme language or actions to challenge people directly enough to get through to them.So aspiring Steve Jobs everywhere, listen up. When you are a leader, you have to tak e the lead in asking employees how they think - even if that means confronting them on-the-spot in uncomfortable meetings.