Jamie Iannone wants to know what you think about eBay, and if you have a conversation with him, he’s probably going to ask. Whether he’s talking with sellers about what support they need or asking employees how they would approach a problem differently, eBay’s CEO has made seeking out feedback an important part of his leadership.
That approach is the focus of a feature in Fast Company’s Modern CEO newsletter, which examines how Jamie uses feedback to improve the eBay experience. “If you listen to your community, they’ll have all kinds of good ideas for what you need to do in this business,” he tells Fast Company’s Stephanie Mehta.
One idea came from two handbag sellers Jamie met at a dinner a few years ago. They explained that the twelve photos per listing eBay then allowed weren’t enough to show buyers all the details they wanted to see on a vintage handbag. Jamie brought their input back to the team, which found a way to expand photo capacity without dramatically increasing costs. The limit eventually doubled to 24.
“If people are super nice to me because I’m the CEO, and they didn’t tell me things, we’d be a much worse company, and I’d be much less effective as a leader,” says Jamie.
He’s taken a similar approach with employees. When he returned to eBay as CEO in 2020, he brought with him a 10-page white paper outlining his ideas for the company. But he also met with leaders across eBay to ask what needed to change, what needed to stay the same, and what they hoped he would do as CEO.
He still does it today. Feedback is a gift, Jamie told Fast Company, and he makes a point of actively asking employees for it. At the end of most employee meetings, regardless of someone’s level at the company, Jamie asks the same question: “What’s your advice for me?”
And yeah, he really wants to hear it.