Highs & Lows Method

“The price of leadership is criticism,” said Albert J. Dunlap. Anyone who has taken a leadership role would second that. People love to criticize leaders, but why is that?

High expectations: People still expect perfection from their leaders, almost inhumanely. Even though there are many different leadership styles (think about Steve Jobs vs. Abraham Lincoln), leaders are expected to overperform under any conditions. Be it stress, suspense, fatigue, or anger, and people want to see an invincible leader. To be an efficient leader, you must be careful when paying attention to the never-ending, never matching, and never satisfying needs of people from you.

The spotlight: A leader is alone, under the spotlight – the prerequisite of leading. And under such light, people can see all the details of their leaders, almost 360 degrees. It is due to the “Negativity Bias.” In “The Power of Bad: And How to Overcome It,” John Tierney and Roy F. Baumeister talk about how we are wired to react badly over good. They explain how the power of bad impact people’s moods, leads to divorces, and countless problems in their professional and personal lives. This is why a bad impression lasts longer than a good one. They refer to the paper of Rozin, coauthored with Edward Royzman, titled “Negativity Bias, Negativity Dominance and Contagion.” In this paper, the conclusion is that “negative events are more salient, potent, dominance in combinations, and generally efficacious than positive events.” A leader should know how the human brain can trick people and take things with a grain of salt.

Comparison Trap: People tend to regulate their impressions of others to affirm their self-images, writes David Dunning and Keith S. Beaugard in their article. They conducted an experiment in which participants with positive or negative views of social skills took a test that measured those skills. They found out that positive self-view participants showed evidence of self-aggrandizement and heightened the uniqueness of their achievement. It is tough to win against everyone’s self-judgment under the spotlight and considering the high expectations. A leader must be aware of this comparison trap and be realistic about the deliverables.

I am not saying that the leader should not listen to the people and be receptive to positive and negative critics. I am saying there is a price of leadership, one of which is being criticized by people. This is why every leader should have an internal bench and an external bench, ideally trustee people where the leader has confidence in the quality of the critic.