MSI Press Blog

  Most organizational assessments rely on guided questions — prompts that shape how employees respond and, intentionally or not, steer their feedback toward what management already expects to hear. Even when the intent is good, the structure of the questioning can limit what employees feel safe or able to say. Reverse Evaluation (RE) takes a different approach. It doesn’t walk employees through Maslow’s Hierarchy level by level. It doesn’t ask about safety, belonging, esteem, or self‑actualization directly. It doesn’t probe or diagnose. Instead, RE asks only two questions: What is working? What is not working? Everything else — every insight, every need, every broken system, every level of the hierarchy — comes from employees themselves. No Leading Questions. No Managerial Framing. No Shaping of Responses. This is the core of RE’s honesty. Traditional evaluations often ask questions like: Do you feel safe in your role? Do you feel recognized? Do you feel connected to your team? Th...

  Leadership isn’t just about decisions; it’s about disposition. The Three Hs—Humility, Hubris, and Humor—tell you whether a leader’s strength is real or performative. 1. Humility Weak leaders mistake humility for weakness. They avoid it because it threatens their image of authority. When they do display it, it’s strategic—performed to appear relatable. Strong leaders live humility as awareness, not apology. They know their limits, invite expertise, and treat correction as collaboration. Humility in strong leaders says, “I’m confident enough to learn.” In weak leaders, it says, “I’m pretending to listen.” 2. Hubris Weak leaders use hubris as armor. They inflate their certainty, dismiss dissent, and confuse dominance with respect. Strong leaders recognize hubris as a warning sign. They keep ambition tethered to accountability and success anchored in service. Hubris blinds weak leaders to reality. Strong leaders use self‑awareness to keep ambition in focus. 3. Humor Weak leade...

  The first Reverse Evaluation is not a meeting. It is a mirror. It shows leaders who they are when truth walks in the room. That’s why preparation matters more than logistics. You can schedule the date, design the forms, and brief the representatives — but if leaders aren’t emotionally and cognitively ready to receive truth, the process will fail before it begins. Here’s how to prepare them. 1. Begin with the purpose, not the procedure. Leaders must understand that the RE is not a referendum on their worth. It is a mechanism for organizational learning. Frame it as a collective diagnostic , not a personal critique. The goal is not to expose weakness but to strengthen the system that supports everyone. When leaders grasp that the RE is about shared success , defensiveness softens. 2. Normalize discomfort. Receiving upward feedback in public is unsettling — even for seasoned leaders. Tell them that discomfort is not failure; it is evidence of growth. The RE is designed to stretch th...