Thought Tweet #682 Negative feedback works when it is well-packed and the recipient of it has high self-confidence.

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

That's the good news.

Here's a picture of the not-so-good news...

Thought Tweet #681 Does leadership mean delicate hands at the controls? Sometimes, Yes; Sometimes, Definitely NO. 

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

Most of the time - 99% of the time - Leaders should be supportive. Why? Because constructive criticism is an oxymoron. 

Most of the time - let's think in terms of a bell curve, so about 2/3 of the time - Leaders need to be in the clear-to-assertive range. That does not mean aggressive...it means assertive. In the clear-to-assertive range - Leaders need to be unemotional, concise, emphatic, and firm...but not intimidating or aggressive.

Sometimes, Leaders need to be very firm...so firm, others may find them aggressive. Here's an example: say you are a leader and one of the people you lead is an office bully; say you have exhausted all clear-to-assertive methods and the office bully does not correct his or her behaviour. In this scenario, you may find a very firm, even aggressive reaction is the only way to remedy the unacceptable bully-behaviour.

Perhaps, natural-born leaders can perform like this without pre-thought or planning...'ad-libbing'. I wouldn't rely on ad-libbing. I recommend thinking about tough situations in advance - thinking about the scenarios that could happen when the office bully is around:

• planning your Leadership response; 
• planning whether or not you will respond in a firm-aggressive; 
• thinking through exactly how you will do that; 
• thinking about how you will control your emotions so you will be in control of the situation;
• choosing your words and body language in advance;
• practicing, as required, to ensure you perform at your best

When you are delivering firm-aggressive messages you are not being constructive...at least, the recipient of your message will not feel or think you are being constructive. However, sometimes, a ruling with an iron fist is the only way to control a bully. 

Bullies are asking for iron-fist assertive leadership.

They are crying out for it.

Take care though - you must deliver it to bullies properly.

There's a wrinkle in customer complaints.

The wrinkle has a couple of waves:

• wave #1 - Customer complaints are legitimate, whether you agree or not. When seeing things from the clients' shoes it matters little what you think. What matters is how clients feel and think. Their complaints signal their feelings. Their complaints signal their perspectives about your weaknesses.
• wave #2 - Constructive criticism is an oxymoron. And that's the way your people are prone to receive customer complaints.