It is difficult to get accurate, helpful feedback as a leader. In almost all work, your work serves someone else; that’s the nature of our society. It’s a good thing – we help each other, and we work hard to get better at serving each other.
But if you’re a people leader, then the people you serve – the very people that your efforts are supposed to help – also have a lot of reasons to lie to you.
Without a positive, constant feedback loop it’s nearly impossible to improve at anything. And people leaders very rarely have such a feedback loop. Which explains why “bad management” is so endemic.
If you want to wield authority effectively, you have to recognize it for what it is. In the context of professional work, it’s a service job. Your role is to be a coordinator, a force multiplier, a coach, and a supporter. It’s not to be a monarch. If you try to be the latter, you’ll never be the rest – and no one will ever tell you.
They’ll just quit.
The Opportunity Machine 