10/12/2021

How Self-awareness Helps You Better Accept Criticism

Receiving criticism with grace will benefit you

One of the prices of leadership is receiving criticism. Leadership means going first, standing out, taking risks, trying to take ground. Others notice you, and not everyone will agree with how you lead.

As a young leader I liked leading. I liked being out front and being noticed. I enjoyed the praise of the people. However, I didn’t want to put up with anybody’s “constructive criticism.” Very quickly I learned that I had unrealistic expectations. No leader, no matter how good, gets only praise (and I certainly wasn’t good when I got started).

If you want to be a leader, you need to get used to criticism, because whether you fail or succeed, you will be criticized. Some of the criticism will be deserved. If you receive it with grace and learn from it, you will benefit. Other criticism will be unfair. Some people will always find something to be unhappy about, and the way they criticize others, you’d think they got paid for it! But you need to respond well to that kind of criticism, too.

Please select this link to read the complete blog post from HC Leadership Essentials.