High Performance Leaders and Criticism

I used to run away from negative thoughts. They could be mine, or someone else's. Sometimes someone close to me would bring an idea that just scared me, or bothered me, and I'd pretend to ignore it. That wasn't a good idea.

Just because someone is negative doesn't mean that they're wrong. They could be wrong. They could be right. They could be far off the mark, and they could be close. We owe to them and ourselves to stay curious enough to figure it out.

A negative thought includes the potential for positive action.

I'm all in favor of positive action. Sometimes, a critical comment gets us going.

High performance leaders are not afraid of criticism. It tells a story. It tells us about our relationships, our processes, our goals. When people express themselves, positively or negatively, until we listen they won't go away, they won't be at their best, and we won't collaborate as well as we should.

Take on that criticism. Stay curious. Sometimes we don't know what we don't know. Isn't it better to find out?

-- Doug Smith

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