Candid Leadership Feedback Loop
Ask your team to expose the gaps between your intent and your impact
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 97%
The loop converts a team from passive recipients of leadership into active evidence about how that leadership lands. The leader asks a structured set of comparative questions: what people liked and disliked about previous employers, what they like and dislike now, and what the leader does right and wrong. The difficult part is not collecting comments but accepting them without retaliation or self-justification. Patterns become a practical development agenda, supported by books, lectures, mentors, and subsequent conversations. The loop closes when the leader changes behaviour and returns for another honest assessment. Liniger credits this willingness to take painful criticism with helping his company grow him into the leader it needed.
Origin
During RE/MAX's difficult early years, Liniger asked an older management team to tell him honestly how the company and his leadership compared with their previous workplaces.
Core principles
- 01A struggling leader needs truth more than reassurance
- 02Comparative questions make vague feedback concrete
- 03Criticism only helps when the leader can absorb it
- 04Leadership develops through repeated feedback and study
How to run it
- 1
Create permission for candour
Tell the team that the organisation needs honest criticism and that the purpose is to develop you, not judge them.
Pro tip Include experienced people who have seen other organisations operate.
Watch out A request for honesty is meaningless if dissent later carries a penalty.
- 2
Ask comparative questions
Ask what they liked and disliked at previous companies, then ask the same about yours. Follow with what you personally do right and wrong.
Pro tip Use the same questions for everyone so recurring themes become visible.
- 3
Take the hits
Listen fully, capture the criticism, and resist explaining why you behaved that way.
Pro tip Summarise what you heard before deciding what to change.
Watch out Defensiveness teaches the team to soften the next answer.
- 4
Build the missing capability
Turn repeated themes into focused learning through practice, reading, seminars, or mentors.
Pro tip Choose one visible behaviour at a time rather than promising a personality overhaul.
- 5
Close the loop
Show the team what changed and ask whether your impact has improved.
Watch out Without a return conversation, feedback becomes an event instead of a development system.
In the wild
A founder asks six managers the same comparative questions. Four say decisions stall because every detail returns to the founder. Instead of defending quality control, the founder defines decision rights, studies delegation, and revisits the team after six weeks to see whether bottlenecks have moved.
→ The company gets faster and the founder gains evidence that a specific leadership change worked.
Common mistakes
Asking for praise
Broad questions such as “How am I doing?” make it easy for people to provide safe reassurance rather than useful comparisons.
Explaining every criticism
Defending intent prevents the leader from hearing the impact the team actually experiences.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for founders and managers whose ambition exceeds their current leadership experience.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for leaders who will punish candour or solicit feedback only to defend themselves.
From the transcript
“what you like best about the company you used to work for what' you dislike the most what do you like most about remix what…”
“how do you grow me up to be the leader you want me to be”
“I wanted my dream to survive I was willing to take the hits”
From the episode
Episode 331: Dave Liniger: Lessons Learned From Achieving True Independence, Extreme Wealth & Huge Successes
Dave Liniger