DEV Community

Discussion on: First 90 days as a new CTO

Collapse
 
adam2419 profile image
Adam Farrell

One of the questions I had Rich was how do you know if your team are giving you truthful feedback? Or perhaps a better question is how do you provide the right environment or setting to achieve truthful feedback?

Collapse
 
rich_marshall profile image
rich_marshall

Hi Adam, I don’t think that’s necessarily easy to do. If people don’t feel safe telling the truth then it’s likely they won’t. To overcome this you have to demonstrate it’s ok to be honest and tell the truth and the best way to do that is to demonstrate that yourself. It’s probably a good idea when you introduce yourself to show some of that honesty - for example, I don’t have a background in development so I’m not going to be an expert in the best way to write code so I’m going to be looking for support on that area.

Likewise it might be helpful to describe some of the mistakes you’ve made in the past. The bottom line is you have to be honest yourself if you want to foster a culture of honesty and show it’s ok to make mistakes. Psychological safety is vital for building effective teams. The boundary of that safety is the boundary of the team.