A leader describes asking his team for feedback on a new purple button design. When they hesitated, fearing to hurt his feelings, he pushed back: he doesn't take it personally, and honest input is what makes things better. Leaders who detach emotionally from criticism create space for the truth.
So I think what's important is for everybody that works with you to feel like they can be pretty honest, right? Yeah. I'm not going to take things personally. Like when we switch from one system to another system and I was spearheading obviously a lot of the development, even still, like there, there I would get kind of like, hey, so what do you guys think? Like, give me your feedback. Like, what do you think of this page? And some people would be like, well, it's like they kind of like were scared to like hurt my feelings. It's back to that idea of keeping it real. Yeah, yeah. And I'm like, just keep it real. No, no, you don't understand. Like, I don't care if you tell me, hey, you know what, Val, honestly, this purple button, I don't like it. I want it this— I want it this shape, and this is somehow gonna just grab my attention more. I don't give a shit. Whatever you guys need, it's not— I'm not gonna take it personal. Tell me, you know.
