How Immediate Active Feedback Loops Drive Leadership Growth and Improvement
- Feb 14, 2025
- 4 min read
Written by Lars Friedrich, Leadership Expert
Lars Friedrich, a seasoned expert in personal and professional leadership development, brings a unique 'Touch of Zen' to his approach. This distinctive method, honed over a proven track record of over three decades, sets him apart in the field and piques his curiosity.
Research on expertise has found that in many occupations, people only improve at their jobs within the first few years of experience. After that, they are more likely to slowly get worse.
Interestingly, these findings rarely occur in fields with an established culture of immediate and active feedback loops.
For exemplary leadership, these active feedback loops are not a luxury but a pressing need to prevent decrementalism and promote continual improvement, regardless of the professional environment.
No margin of error
As an example of how to implement these active feedback loops, let’s take a current client of mine, a trauma surgeon.
During his daily, hectic shifts in the operating theatre, he sees the results of his interventions immediately.
If he makes a mistake, his patient might bleed out.
However, if he figures out how to execute a technique more effectively during his multiple operations, he sees that, too.
In other words, for him, there is no margin of error.
There is also no time to waste on smart-alecky, lengthy, elusive discussions of fancy-sounding theories or pleasing individual comforts and feelings.
Instead, only rapid, ongoing, active, and results-oriented feedback allows him to continually improve his exemplary professional approach to both personal and leadership development.
Business environments
On the other hand, most leadership in dynamic corporate and entrepreneurial business environments doesn’t receive feedback that is clear and immediate most of the time.
Instead, as an ongoing process of personal and leadership development, it is influenced by changes in demographics and cultural movements over the last few years.
Too much attention is often put on minor issues during its execution.
Particularly when feedback is vague or delayed, the urgency to learn and improve becomes paramount.
"If you want the rainbow, you have to deal with the rain." – Gaius 'Augustus' Octavius
Theoretical knowledge never validated in practice can solidify into flawed 'gut instincts' or prioritise momentary 'feel-good' decisions, leading to incrementalism.
As a result, a gradual decline in performance or standards can creep in and take hold, a phenomenon known as ‘decrementalism,’ a dangerous normalisation of shortcuts that would never have been acceptable initially.
Procedures suddenly become routine, one slight deviation at a time, and "the way we've always done it" becomes synonymous with "the way it should be done forever."
In the end, many people don’t have ten years of experience.
Instead, they have one year of experience that they’ve repeated ten times.
The outcome of this apparent dilemma has become even more evident in the leadership of today’s dynamic corporate and entrepreneurial business environments.
Preventing decrementalism
For executives, leaders, and entrepreneurs, slipping into the traps of this dilemma can be avoided by:
Keeping the balance between exploiting what’s currently available and exploring new methods or strategies in mind.
Remembering that closed systems collapse. Without the input of new ideas and fresh voices, not just theories, any industry or occupation becomes stagnant, outdated, and vulnerable.
Actively seeking out negative feedback by fact-checking and reality-checking all existing and upcoming assumptions.
Active stress testing
But how do executives, leaders, and entrepreneurs know whether what they believe is true?
How could they disprove it, and could there be an alternative explanation for what they’re observing?
The answer to those questions lies in the implementation of active stress testing.
Specifically, in dynamic, fast-paced, and ever-changing business environments, and to prevent the early stages of decrementalism, all leadership development aimed at improvement, innovation, and accountability needs actively executed stress testing from time to time.
This stress testing involves deliberately subjecting systems, processes, strategies, or practices to challenging conditions to identify weaknesses and areas for improvement.
Interestingly, the outcome often contradicts the most popular, shared, scholar-based theoretical approaches and explanations.
Immediate active feedback loops
As my client remarked during one of our last meetings:
"Isn't it interesting that, unlike the numerous leadership theories and advice given to executives, leaders, and entrepreneurs by wise people, scholars, and experts, none of those ever stepped forward to explain how to do my job appropriately and effectively?
Maybe in environments with no margin of error and the need for immediate feedback, the talkers run out of brilliant ideas sooner?"
Therefore, for exemplary leadership, immediate active feedback loops are not a luxury but a necessity to prevent decrementalism and promote continual improvement, regardless of the professional environment.
Credible professional
With tried-and-tested, first-hand experience and acquired expertise in:
44 years of self-leadership as an active practitioner of traditional Japanese martial, medical, and spiritual arts.
37 years of leading others in international military, governmental, medical, corporate, and entrepreneurial business environments.
I am a seasoned and credible professional who guides and supports my clients through stress testing and the implementation of immediate active feedback loops.
By continuously and passionately promoting the reality of leadership, and not the too-often romanticised perception of it.
Lars Friedrich, Leadership Expert
Lars Friedrich, a seasoned expert in personal and professional leadership development, brings a unique 'Touch of Zen' to his approach. This distinctive method, honed over a proven track record of over three decades, sets him apart in the field and piques his curiosity.
With a career that has spanned from being a former Officer and Special Forces Operator to a COO in international and intercultural corporate business operations and development positions, and now as the founder of his boutique business, Lars has accumulated a wealth of practical leadership, resilience, discipline, motivation, endurance, commitment, persistence, and dedication.
