Chad Silverstein identifies the "Triple D" trap: when leaders destroy, deny, or defend against feedback, they kill future honesty and erode trust. Founders especially struggle because they identify so strongly with their work that criticism feels personal.
Chapters
The Triple D is one of the worst qualities that you can have as a leader. The D stands for destroy, deny, defend. And the reason we say Triple D is because people Triple D other people. You know, you have someone who you need to address, and as soon as you say something to them, they're giving you the excuses, they're fighting you back, they're telling you why it's not true. For whatever reason, they're Triple D you. And the problem with a leader who triple Ds is that you will Triple D someone and then they'll never come back to you. So if you get feedback from people and you benefit from that, then you have to be careful that when you're getting feedback that you keep your mouth closed. Because if you respond and give excuses and try to explain yourself, then you're gonna. You're gonna jolt their justice thread and they're not gonna wanna come back and give you more feedback in the future. It's all dependent upon the trust and the safe environment that people will feel comfortable telling you something without feeling like they're gonna get shot. And. And it's a discipline and it's something that, you know, I think leaders have to be tuned in to be able to have some emotional intelligence and some empathy and understand how they make people feel when they respond. But don't become a master triple deer. And if you are one, which, if you're. If you're a founder and you know your product or your service better than anyone, you probably feel like there's no one who knows things better than you do. But you have to be really careful. The Triple D is not a good quality. You want to get tagged with.
