New-Manager Feedback Correction Loop
Surface hidden management habits early and correct them before they harm the team.
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 97%
Moving into management amplifies ordinary habits because the team now interprets them through authority. The manager therefore needs deliberate feedback loops that reveal behaviors they cannot observe themselves. Gather candid input through one-to-ones, skip-level conversations, surveys, or a trusted leader, then look for repeated patterns rather than reacting to one isolated comment. Select a concrete behavior to change and verify whether the team experiences an improvement. The episode's practical distinction—beginning with how a person is rather than how their work is doing—illustrates the mechanism. It shifts the relationship from transactional status collection toward human understanding. Repeating the loop during the first 24 months helps the manager correct problems before they harden into a leadership identity or damage team trust.
Origin
Extracted from Marketing Against The Grain.
Core principles
- 01Individual-contributor habits can become team-level liabilities.
- 02New managers cannot reliably see how their behavior lands.
- 03Early feedback makes harmful patterns easier to correct.
- 04People need to be treated as humans, not merely as project-status sources.
How to run it
- 1
Install Feedback Channels
Create recurring, psychologically safer ways for reports and peers to describe how your management behavior affects them.
Pro tip Combine direct conversations with at least one channel that reduces the pressure of speaking to a manager face to face.
Watch out Do not promise anonymity if the process cannot genuinely protect it.
- 2
Ask About Your Impact
Request feedback on communication, trust, support, decision making, and interpersonal behavior, not just project performance.
Pro tip Ask for a recent example so the feedback can guide a specific change.
Watch out Questions designed to solicit reassurance will not expose blind spots.
- 3
Find the Pattern
Compare observations and identify behaviors that recur across people or situations.
Pro tip Distinguish between a style preference and a pattern that harms team effectiveness.
Watch out Do not dismiss difficult feedback simply because it conflicts with your intent.
- 4
Change One Behavior
Choose a visible replacement behavior, such as asking about the person before requesting status.
Pro tip Tell the team what you are trying to improve so they can notice and reinforce the change.
Watch out A broad promise to be a better manager is too vague to test.
- 5
Close the Loop
Return to the team after a defined period and ask whether the behavior and its impact changed.
Pro tip Measure progress by the team's experience, not your effort alone.
Watch out Do not retaliate against people whose feedback remains critical.
In the wild
Kieran learned that his team experienced him as robotic and felt he saw each person as a walking project report. By recognizing the pattern, he could shift one-to-ones toward understanding the person and what was happening in their life before discussing project status.
→ The feedback exposed a hidden interpersonal cost early enough for the manager to correct it.
Common mistakes
Measuring Only Output
A team may hit targets while trust and retention deteriorate because the manager never examines interpersonal impact.
Defending Intent
Explaining that pressure caused the behavior does not change how the team experiences it.
Collecting Feedback Without Follow-Up
People become less candid when they provide difficult feedback and see no visible change.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for managers in their first two years who want to build trust while learning how their behavior affects others.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal as a substitute for formal intervention when behavior involves harassment, discrimination, retaliation, or another serious violation.
From the transcript
“The thing that's really important when you're a new manager and learning to be a new manager in the first 24 months is really feedback…”
“the sooner you can know about them and correct them, the better.”
“I think there's a really good quote where you start to meeting with like, how are you versus how is your thing doing?”
From the episode
Take Control of Your Future (Career Advice for Marketing Professionals)