Responding to Public Criticism
Being a leader in any field is a double-edged sword. Leaders are idolized when they succeed and ridiculed, criticized, and lambasted when they fall short. Having thick skin and a short memory are often key to maintaining one’s mental health in the hot seat, but simply withstanding criticism isn’t usually enough for business leaders; they need to be able to respond to public criticism as well.
Focus on the Facts
Facing criticism can be an emotional experience. Correspondingly, it’s easy to let emotion drive the response, and many leaders respond to criticism by getting defensive and emotional themselves. This is a trap for the unwary. Focusing on objective facts is a far better approach to crisis communications.
“You will naturally feel defensive when attacked, especially if it feels unjust, exaggerated, or inaccurate,” writes Ron Carucci in an article for Harvard Business Review. “But your defensiveness will only fuel people’s derision. If there’s inaccurate information feeding the frenzied reactions, do what you can to replace it with facts. Be careful to convey those facts as information you believe people need, not as a refutation of people’s unfair accusations.”
Embrace Humility and Transparency
A similar trap many leaders fall into is saying too little. While sometimes the most desirable thing in the world when facing criticism would be to crawl into a dark hole, leaders generally can’t simply clam up and hide in the face of adversity. Sometimes, simply admitting mistakes and being honest can be the best response to criticism.
“Many leaders fear that a humble posture conveys guilt and remorse, inadvertently signaling ‘you did it’ even if that’s not true,” says Carucci. “But it actually shows care. Hiding and avoidance scream ‘guilt.’ Separate wanting to clarify or reduce your degree of culpability from caring for those you lead.”
Don’t Forget to Be Reactive and Proactive
While criticism can be exaggerated, misinformed, and driven by ulterior motives, when there’s a lot of criticism coming from multiple directions, there’s probably a kernel of truth in there, Carucci says. Amid all the time and effort spent on damage control, it’s important and incumbent upon a leader to fix existing problems and prevent the same or similar issues from occurring in the future.
Being the head of a business can come with some significant perks—prestige, compensation, sometimes even fame—but, whether fair or not, the leader serves as a lightning rod for criticism, and understanding how to best respond to that criticism is a crucial skill for any leader.
Lin Grensing-Pophal is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Advisor.
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