Lenny RachitskyHost of Lenny's Podcast | Author of Lenny's Newsletter

Praise in private, criticize in public

27 Feb 2026 · 1 min

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The common rule to praise publicly and criticize privately only works if your team already trusts you. Once trust exists, you can critique ideas openly in front of everyone. But you have to back it up with private support so people know you have their back.

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Every management book that you read will tell you praise in public, criticize in private. I fundamentally disagree with that notion. What you have to do is establish enough trust among the team so that you are comfortable critiquing and debating in public. I tend to be very, very direct in public. This is not working. Let me tell you why it's not working. We got to face the facts and then be very, very clear with people that you got their back in private. And don't be stingy with words on that front. Conflict is a necessary condition of business, but the only way that you can have productive conflict is if you've established trust. And the only way that you can establish trust is by making sure that you spend the time to establish the trust.