"Feedback is the breakfast of champions." - Ken Blanchard

The less often you ask your team to give you feedback on how you're doing as a leader, the more emotionally charged it is--and the reverse is true, too.

It's a dangerous situation because most of us have a pretty unpleasant experience when we first get hard feedback from our team. So, we delay that uncomfortable conversation until it's absolutely necessary. Issues pile up, unaddressed, and we don't practice our listening and learning muscles so that when we finally have a feedback conversation, it's another hard one. And we confirm our belief that these conversations are inherently difficult and are to be done as little as possible.

However, the more often we have these conversations, the fewer surprises they hold, and the more skilled we get at sifting through the raw comments and identifying useful improvement ideas. These become low-emotion, matter-of-fact discussions. Best of all, you grow a lot faster and actually lead a lot better.

You could read a lot of books this year, which would help you lead better.

You could go to several conferences this year, and that would help you lead better, too.

You could get certified in a dozen new skills through online programs.

But what would be more valuable than all of that combined would be to have four real feedback sessions from your team, one per quarter.

If you don't know where to start and don't have confidence your team can give you good feedback to your face, then do a "360-degree review" or have a coach collect feedback for you. But don't ignore the most powerful tool you've got because it's hard.

It's only hard because you're avoiding it.