Getting somebody on your team to open up to you means you are doing it right.

If you have a team member who is sharing their life goals with you–and those goals clearly can’t be achieved by working on your team forever–then you are doing it right.

If you have a team member who is comfortable giving you feedback about how to improve as a leader, then you are doing it right.

If you have team members who strenuously advocate for what they think is right and avoid the comfort of group think in meetings, then you are doing it right.

If you have team members who feel safe enough to voice their initial opinions–opinions that may not be fully formed and stress tested–then you are doing it right.

What am I saying here. To confidently know that we are doing it right as leaders means we need to rely on different metrics. You will know it’s a good metric if it doesn’t play well with spreadsheets. These metrics are squishy. These metrics involve feelings. These metrics are impossible to measure but easy to observe.

Does your team trust you? Does your team feel safe with you? Does your team act to better the team and not the individual?

The answers matter.