How Leaders Should Handle Public Criticism
SOURCE: Harvard Business Review
Summary
An organization’s leaders are often the target of criticism, from both internal and external sources. This article offers advice for leaders on how to handle it. The author suggests accepting criticism is part of the job. Focus on solving the problem, respond to anyone who’s been harmed, and learn from what happened. Leaders should also set the record straight with facts, not emotion, and be humble and transparent. They should filter conflicting advice through their values and stand up in front of the world to represent their message authentically and honestly.
Excerpt
“A few years ago, a client of mine, Dennis, the CEO of a financial services institution, walked into his executive team meeting and declared, ‘Anyone else have any darts they want to throw? I seem to be the dartboard of the week.’
The week prior, a lower-level executive in Dennis’s company had been fired for an ethics violation, giving the company’s otherwise upstanding reputation a black eye. Shocked and outraged by what had happened, employees took aim at the top in a spate of social media, email, and internal platform condemnations of Dennis for ‘letting it happen’ or ‘turning a blind eye.’ (Neither of which were true.)”
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