I invest about a day per month in writing my monthly Leader Letter. Our support staff then spend about the same amount of time fixing my mistakes, cleaning up after me, and “prettying it up.” I do get fairly frequent e-mails and comments from people I meet at various speaking engagements and workshops about how useful they find the Leader Letter. But that is infrequent and purely anecdotal.

Last month was the Leader Letter’s fourth anniversary. It was a perfect time to get broader and more systemic input on the newsletter. So we ran a reader survey. Within a few weeks, 110 readers answered the survey’s seven questions. Over thirty of them offered write-in suggestions for additional features they’d like to see added. And over sixty-five people (more than half) added overall comments on the Leader Letter and/or my work.

This feedback was extremely helpful and very heartening. Nearly 60% of readers rated the Leader Letter the highest possible on the usefulness scale. And 84% rated it eight or higher on a 10-point scale of over all quality. I was a bit surprised to see 81% of readers felt the Leader Letter was “just the right length.” In today’s world of overflowing e-mail inboxes and extreme time pressures, I expected readers to ask for a shorter publication. I also found the rankings of the Leader Letter’s typical sections very helpful. The highest ranking went to a section I was thinking of dropping (“Thoughts That Make You Go Hmmm…”)!

The write-in suggestions provided very interesting ideas that I need to chew on some more. I am especially heartened and intrigued by reader interest in – and ideas for – the business fable (Moose-on-the-Table) on courageous conversations in the workplace that I am currently writing.

The most rewarding of all were the many positive and supportive comments added to the final “Overall comments” section. It is quite rewarding to hear of the many ways readers use and benefit from the Leader Letter.

You can review all the survey results and written comments at http://www.surveymonkey.com/Report.asp?U=352986927991.

We’ve also extended our offer to have readers complete the survey and enter a chance to win one of twenty-five copies of my new book Moose-on-the-Table: A Fable of Courageous Conversations in the Workplace (not necessarily the final title) when it comes out later this year. Your chances of winning are currently one in four! If you haven’t completed it already, go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=955363529869 and participate in the survey.

Thanks very much!