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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is to make sure that critiques are aimed at

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Speaker 1: being helpful and that you are direct when giving them. So.

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Speaker 1: I recently learned about a leader who likes to tell

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Speaker 1: her team the devil doesn't need another advocate. In other words,

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Speaker 1: don't feel the need to play devil's advocate by expressing

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Speaker 1: an opposing point of view just to do so. So

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Speaker 1: if you find yourself starting to say, if I had

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Speaker 1: to offer one criticism, stop, you don't have to offer

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Speaker 1: any criticisms. Now. I do believe there is a place

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Speaker 1: for robust discussion. Nothing is ever perfect, but I do

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Speaker 1: think this leader is on to something that playing devil's

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Speaker 1: advocate is not always helpful. When people refer to playing

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Speaker 1: devil's advocate, they are not expressing the alternative view in

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Speaker 1: their own voice. They are voicing the perspective of this

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Speaker 1: hypothetical devil's advocate. Likewise, when people say if I had

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Speaker 1: to offer one criticism, they are not standing behind their feedback.

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Speaker 1: They are presenting it as though offering a criticism or

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Speaker 1: compulsory as though someone said they had to offer one critique,

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Speaker 1: but that is almost never the case. If something is fine,

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Speaker 1: it is fine. If you see something that you believe

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Speaker 1: needs to be changed, then state what that is and

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Speaker 1: what you would like to see be different. For instance,

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Speaker 1: you could simply say I think we should consider how

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Speaker 1: newcomers might experience this new procedure, or overall, I thought

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Speaker 1: the event was great, but there was a bottleneck when

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Speaker 1: people were checking in. Maybe we could explore a different

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Speaker 1: system for next year. Neither of these comments feels overly

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Speaker 1: negative or critical. They are forward looking and productive and direct.

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Speaker 1: They are intended to help the team get better. Sometimes, though,

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Speaker 1: feedback or offering a different perspective isn't actually going to

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Speaker 1: help the team get better. This might be because the

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Speaker 1: feedback isn't relevant to anything that's happening in the future,

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Speaker 1: or because there is nothing that can be done about

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Speaker 1: whatever the irritation is. When that is the case, you

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Speaker 1: can just hold your tongue. Sometimes kids are taught when

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Speaker 1: offering feedback to evaluate if something is honest or kind

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Speaker 1: or necessary. I might also add productive to the list,

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Speaker 1: and these are valuable questions for adults to ask as

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Speaker 1: well before offering criticism. If it will be helpful, great.

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Speaker 1: But if you are arguing just to argue or criticizing

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Speaker 1: because that feels more sophisticated than simply letting something that

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Speaker 1: is acceptable be acceptable, just remember the devil doesn't need

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Speaker 1: another advocate. You don't have to offer any criticism at all.

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Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and

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Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for

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Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,

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Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts

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Speaker 1: from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

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Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.