Directly ask your manager, "When you talk about my performance in leadership meetings, what are the main points you emphasize?" An honest manager will answer directly, while a manipulative one will likely deflect or become defensive, revealing their lack of transparency.
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To overcome loyalty bias toward long-tenured employees, leaders should reframe performance reviews. Instead of asking if they are "good enough," ask, "Knowing our future needs, would I hire this person for this role today?" This clarifies whether their skills match future requirements, enabling objective talent decisions.
To perform a simple but effective 360-degree review, ask your boss, peers, and direct reports two questions: "What are my strengths?" and "What could I improve upon?" The vague nature of the second question helps bubble up the most critical areas for growth without leading the witness.
People become defensive when given unsolicited advice. To create an opening for constructive criticism, first ask the other person for feedback on your own performance. This act of vulnerability establishes trust and often triggers a natural social tendency for them to reciprocate, making them more receptive to your feedback in return.
Employees should test their managers by asking how they make decisions. A manager who cannot articulate their decision-making framework is a significant warning sign, suggesting a lack of clarity and potential organizational chaos. This serves as a powerful "reverse interview" technique for assessing leadership.
To prevent defensiveness when giving critical feedback, managers should explicitly state their positive intent. Saying "I'm giving this because I care about you and your career" shifts the focus from a personal attack to a supportive act of leadership aimed at helping them grow.
To get truthful feedback, leaders should criticize their own ideas first. By openly pointing out a flaw in their plan (the "ugly baby"), they signal that criticism is safe and desired, preventing subordinates from just offering praise out of fear or deference.
When given unclear feedback like 'be more strategic,' don't ask for a definition. Instead, ask for concrete examples: 'What would it have looked like for me to be strategic?' or 'What would you have done differently?' This forces managers to provide actionable guidance instead of abstract criticism.
To check your integrity, imagine your conversation is on speakerphone for all stakeholders to hear. If you feel the need to change your words or ask to be taken off speaker, you are likely changing the core message, not just adapting your style.
Senior executives are, by definition, excellent at interviewing, making the process unreliable for signal. Instead of relying on a polished performance, ask to see the 360-degree performance reviews from their previous company. This provides a more honest, ground-truth assessment of their strengths and weaknesses.
An effective manager evaluation technique is to recognize that everyone presents their polished "best self" initially. An allocator's primary job during due diligence is to actively investigate beyond this facade to uncover the manager's "true self"—how they operate under pressure and handle failure—before committing capital.
