Why do leaders spend so much time learning how to give feedback? Wouldn’t it be better if we spent more time learning how to accept feedback?

The more and more I think about leadership thought leadership, the more and more I wonder if it all means nothing.

I read tons of books on leadership, people, communication, and how we influence one another. There’s no mystery. The best leaders help their teams perform their next show better; they don’t spend time adjudicating the past. What’s rarely discussed is how the best teams accept feedback.

Learning to be a musician is learning how to accept feedback. Your teacher critiques your performance. You are encouraged to criticize your performance. A jury dissects your performance. Everybody is criticizing you. How do we musicians make it through music school?

The answer you thought in your head is likely not wrong, but that’s not what I’m going to share.

The answer is we learn to think of our performance as just that - a performance.

There are worlds where self worth is not defined by someone’s work. I know. I’ve been there.