How to Turn Bad Feedback Into a Breakthrough!

Last year, I worked with a leader who got some tough feedback.

What happened?

Well, he was under a lot of pressure from his head office in San Francisco to make some changes.

He desperately wanted to protect his team from the stress these changes would cause, so he withheld some information that he thought would be hard for them to hear.

But that decision backfired.

His team didn’t feel protected; rather, they felt like they were missing important context and critical information.

They wanted honesty and transparency from their leader. They wanted to hear the news from head office, whether it was good or bad.

So, when the employee opinion survey results came in, his scores were not favorable.

He was called out for lacking openness and transparency.

His actions caused him to lose a lot of trust.

The Moment That Defines Real Leadership

Now this is the moment where many leaders might have been defensive, angry, or embarrassed.

He could have rationalized his behaviour by saying that he meant well and his intentions were good!

But not this leader.

Instead, he picked up the phone and said:

“Vanessa, please help me figure out why my feedback is so bad this year and how I can fix it.”

This is what real leadership looks like.

He owned his behaviour! I was very impressed!

So, we created a strategy that started with a meeting to discuss the feedback in front of his leadership team.

He stood in front of 40 people and shared his low scores openly. That took a lot of courage.

Then, he invited me to travel across the country to facilitate sessions with his teams to discuss what went wrong. We then created an action plan to fix the key issues.

What impressed me the most about this situation?

He sat in every single session. He listened to all of the complaints. He stayed curious. He never interrupted anyone or attempted to defend himself.

How Owning Your Mistakes Transforms Leadership

Fast forward one year…

I got an email from him last week. His results this year? Well, they were glowing.

Why?

Because he owned his behaviour and he learned from it.

He worked very hard for an entire year to rebuild trust, strengthen his leadership and build his team.

His openness, courage and humility really paid off.

Let me reassure you that leadership is not about being perfect.

It is quite the opposite.

Great leadership is about being human, owning your mistakes and committing to getting better every single day.

Have you ever had feedback that was a breakthrough for you?

If so, how did this difficult feedback change you for the better?