Insight: Why We Are Less Self-Aware Than We Think—and What to Do About It

by Tasha Eurich

The process was famously pioneered in the early 1970s at General Electric and has been described as “a super-intensive getting-to-know-you meeting [where] team members raise candid observations and questions” about their leader. Though it was originally developed to help new managers and their teams get to know one another, the so-called “New Leader Assimilation Exercise” has been shown to be valuable regardless of a leader’s tenure—that’s why I call it the Leader Feedback Process. It helps managers earn nearly instantaneous insight into their team’s perceptions and expectations of them while improving their leadership, communication, and well-being. What’s more, empirically, their teams experience better, more trusting relationships and a greater sense of commitment to their mission.