Why You Don't Get Feedback

Here's a simple way to build stronger relationships and improve your customer service.

- JASON FEIFER

If you're a manager, your team might hesitate to give you updates. If you're a founder, your customers might not give valuable feedback.

This is awful, right? You don’t think of yourself as intimidating! But here’s the problem: You haven't given them permission—because you didn’t think you needed to.

When you fix this, you'll become a better friend, leader, and partner. So let’s start by looking at the power of permission, and then extend it to you.

My friend Jenny Wood is a former Google executive, and the author of a great new book called Wild Courage. She recently got into a Lyft that was freezing cold—but she didn’t feel comfortable asking the driver to turn the heat up. So she suffered silently.

Then Jenny saw a sign the driver had hung in the back seat. It said: “If you need anything, feel free to ask.” So she did! “The sign gave me permission,” she told me. “It’s permission I didn’t even realize I needed.”

In theory, if people want something from us, they should just ask. Right?