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If you had an employee and could clearly see an area where they had room to grow

People and behaviour2 min readSam Page

If you had an employee and could clearly see an area where they had room to grow, you'd want to share that with them, gently and honestly, because that's how you help someone become better. But as a CEO, getting that same honest feedback about yourself and your organisation is far harder to come by. When you do get it, it's both invaluable and humbling.

Organisations are full of people with ideas and solutions. But if something isn't right at work, and you don’t create the right culture for feedback, they'll moan and complain to anyone and everyone except the people who might be able to do something about that.

They usually don't believe anything will happen, or they're worried it'll reflect badly on their career.

So as the leader, founder, CEO, or whatever your title is, that's on you.

I'm still not perfect at this, but here are the five things I do to get honest feedback as often as possible:

  1. Create a way for people to give it.
    A conversation over coffee, a written submission, whatever works. In my experience, informal and human-to-human tends to work best.

  2. Actively listen.
    Go in with an open mind. Ask open-ended questions. Push past the surface-level stuff – and if feedback comes in writing, read between the lines too.

  3. Don't react defensively.
    This is the hardest one. I still have to fight that internal reaction of "Am I to blame here?" Stay calm, stay composed, and simply encourage more.

  4. Thank them.
    Simple. Show them you appreciate the feedback.

  5. Involve them in the solution.
    Go back to them when a decision has been made. Tell them what you're doing about it. Involve them if you can. Let them know how it went. Thank them again.

One last thing: not all feedback can be acted on. And that's fine.

But you have to create the space for it in the first place. Make people feel safe. Show them when things are heard. And when something can't be done, help them understand why.

First published on LinkedIn.

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GEThttps://sam-page.com/thinking/if-you-had-an-employee-and-could-clearly-see-an-area-where-they-had-room-to-grow.mdtext/markdown; charset=utf-8

---
title: "If you had an employee and could clearly see an area where they had room to grow"
url: https://sam-page.com/thinking/if-you-had-an-employee-and-could-clearly-see-an-area-where-they-had-room-to-grow
date: 2026-07-07
author: Sam Page
type: Post or article
categories: [People and behaviour]
reading_time: 2 min
summary: "If you had an employee and could clearly see an area where they had room to grow, you'd want to share that with them, gently and honestly, because that's how you help someone become…"
first_published: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Ashare%3A7480200407303180289
---

# If you had an employee and could clearly see an area where they had room to grow

If you had an employee and could clearly see an area where they had room to grow, you'd want to share that with them, gently and honestly, because that's how you help someone become better. But as a CEO, getting that same honest feedback about yourself and your organisation is far harder to come by. When you do get it, it's both invaluable and humbling.

![](https://sam-page.com/img/thinking/if-you-had-an-employee-and-could-clearly-see-an-area-where-they-had-ro-li1.webp)

Organisations are full of people with ideas and solutions. But if something isn't right at work, and you don’t create the right culture for feedback, they'll moan and complain to anyone and everyone except the people who might be able to do something about that.

They usually don't believe anything will happen, or they're worried it'll reflect badly on their career.

So as the leader, founder, CEO, or whatever your title is, that's on you.

I'm still not perfect at this, but here are the five things I do to get honest feedback as often as possible:

1. Create a way for people to give it.  
A conversation over coffee, a written submission, whatever works. In my experience, informal and human-to-human tends to work best.

2. Actively listen.  
Go in with an open mind. Ask open-ended questions. Push past the surface-level stuff – and if feedback comes in writing, read between the lines too.

3. Don't react defensively.  
This is the hardest one. I still have to fight that internal reaction of "Am I to blame here?" Stay calm, stay composed, and simply encourage more.

4. Thank them.  
Simple. Show them you appreciate the feedback.

5. Involve them in the solution.  
Go back to them when a decision has been made. Tell them what you're doing about it. Involve them if you can. Let them know how it went. Thank them again.

One last thing: not all feedback can be acted on. And that's fine.

But you have to create the space for it in the first place. Make people feel safe. Show them when things are heard. And when something can't be done, help them understand why.