4 Strategies to Help New Leaders Give Feedback

Harvard Business Review

15-07-2025

Every leader faces challenges like establishing credibility, managing up, and building strategic relationships when they start a new role. One of the most sensitive and critical challenges is giving feedback, which can feel like walking a tightrope: You haven't had the chance to build credibility with your new team, but you're under pressure to prove your value quickly. Moving too fast can lead to missteps, while waiting too long risks inaction and meaningful opportunities lost.
As a former C-Level executive turned CEO and executive coach, I've faced this challenge firsthand and have supported many leaders in navigating this critical phase. Here are four strategies to help new leaders approach feedback with confidence and clarity.
1. Assess the landscape.
A few weeks into his new role, I met Barry*, a divisional CFO, for an executive coaching session focused on helping him maximize his early impact. He reflected on a pattern from earlier in his career: his tendency to act quickly in new roles, an approach that had created resistance and strained relationships.
As a new leader, it's tempting to jump straight into action, pushing for quick wins to demonstrate your value. But without understanding the broader context, even the most well-intentioned moves can backfire.
To navigate this tension between speed and context, new leaders can benefit from creating a structured learning plan across four domains: technical, interpersonal, cultural, and political. This framework, drawn from Michael Watkins' The First 90 Days, helps leaders explore not just systems and roles, but also values, norms, informal power structures, and hidden dynamics. Within each domain, ask questions about the past (What's led to this team's success—or setbacks?), the present (Who's influential? What's the team's operating rhythm?), and the future (What changes are on the horizon? What barriers exist?).
You'll rarely have complete clarity, but after you've triangulated perspectives across different levels and sources, the picture starts to sharpen. If multiple people are raising similar themes and that is consistent with what you observe, you're likely on firmer ground. The goal isn't to gather all the information, but to gather enough to give feedback that is informed, contextualized, and constructive. Understanding the landscape—beyond the data—allows you to deliver feedback that is informed and effective. It helps you avoid missteps that can erode trust before it's built.
As he started his new role, Barry made a personal commitment to notice his instinct to move quickly and take more deliberate action. That opportunity came quickly when he noticed that his head of accounting, Luis, lacked the strategic capabilities required for the role. Avoiding his first instinct to deliver tough feedback immediately, Barry gathered more context. Over the next couple of weeks, he observed team interactions, asked thoughtful questions, and sought input from Luis's peers. He learned that Luis was a 17-year company veteran who was widely respected, collaborative, and instrumental in mentoring younger talent. With this broader understanding, Barry delivered candid feedback about the skill gap and offered a transition into a newly created role that honored Luis's strengths while addressing the business's needs.
2. Fast-track trust.
To ensure your feedback is not just heard but acted upon, you need to build a foundation of trust. While trust naturally builds over time, exceptional leaders take deliberate steps to fast-track it.
One strategy I recommend is inspired by Patrick Lencioni's The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, which emphasizes that vulnerability is a core building block of trust. You could practice this by sharing your greatest strengths with your team along with the potential 'dark sides' of those strengths. For example, decisiveness can sometimes manifest as impatience, while collaboration can inadvertently lead to slower decision-making. When leaders acknowledge these inherit downsides of their strengths, they signal to the team that it's safe to be imperfect and self-aware.
I facilitated this exercise with a newly restructured leadership team seeking to build trust and improve collaboration. Each leader shared their top strengths and the downsides when those strengths were overused or misapplied. Because everyone participated, the vulnerability felt derisked. The result was faster trust, deeper understanding, and a foundation for more candid feedback going forward.
By modeling openness and creating intentional moments of vulnerability, leaders lay the groundwork for psychological safety, making future feedback more likely to be received with openness and goodwill.
3. Understand your team members' aspirations.
In your first few weeks, schedule one-on-one meetings with your direct reports that are focused on getting to know them, their aspirations, and their perspectives. What motivates them? What are their career aspirations? What kind of support do they need from you to thrive? Ask them about their best bosses and what those leaders did to help them succeed. These conversations lay the groundwork for trust and make future feedback easier to deliver, as it can be positioned around helping them achieve their goals.
When my client Divya became the head of global sales, she scheduled one-on-one career talks with each team member. During one conversation Maria, a top-performing regional sales leader, shared her ambition to one day lead a larger sales organization.
A few weeks later, Divya noticed that Maria tended to dominate discussions in team meetings, unintentionally stifling input from others. When Divya gave her feedback, she framed it in terms of Maria's goals: 'Leading on a larger stage will mean fostering collaboration and creating space for others' ideas to shine. Let's work on strategies to build that skill now.' Maria took the feedback to heart. In subsequent meetings, she shifted her approach—asking more questions, drawing out quieter voices, and consistently enrolling her team before offering her own perspective. When Divya checked in with a few of Maria's colleagues, they shared that they felt more heard and included. By aligning feedback with Maria's aspirations, Divya made it easier to receive and more motivating to act on.
4. Set aside your ego.
It's natural for a new leader to want to prove they were the right hire. But this can lead to an ego-driven feedback trap, such as being overly blunt or aggressive to score quick wins, or overly passive to avoid ruffling feathers. Exceptional leaders understand that you can be clear and direct while showing care and respect— it's not an either/or choice.
Take my client Michael, a recently promoted director at a tech startup. One of his senior engineers, Shana, had missed several deadlines, putting a key product launch at risk. Michael couldn't avoid addressing the issue, but he also didn't want to come across as harsh in his first major feedback conversation. In their one-on-one, he began by acknowledging Shana's expertise and her significant contributions to past successes. Then, he shared his observations: 'Shana, I've noticed the missed deadlines on your recent deliverables. I know you're committed to the success of this product, and I want to make sure you have what you need to get back on track. Can you share what's been challenging, and let's talk about how I can support you?'
This combination of direct feedback and empathetic inquiry led to an honest conversation. Shana explained that a new process had created bottlenecks in her workflow. Together, they developed a plan to adjust her responsibilities and streamline the process, preventing future delays. By addressing the issue head-on with care and respect, Michael reinforced accountability while strengthening trust.
To strike this balance, structure your feedback intentionally. Most leaders naturally skew toward either empathy or directness. Knowing your default lets you prepare in advance so you can dial up the side that doesn't come as easily. Striking this balance sets the tone for a culture of honesty, accountability, and growth. Feedback becomes a tool for development, not a threat to relationships.
Giving feedback when you're new to your role can feel like a minefield, but it's also an opportunity to establish your leadership foundation. By assessing the landscape, fast-tracking trust, understanding your team's aspirations, and setting aside your ego, you can navigate this challenge effectively. In doing so, you'll not only drive performance but also create a team culture built on trust, candor, and mutual success—essential ingredients for any leader's legacy.