Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to make sure that critiques are aimed at
Speaker 1: being helpful and that you are direct when giving them. So.
Speaker 1: I recently learned about a leader who likes to tell
Speaker 1: her team the devil doesn't need another advocate. In other words,
Speaker 1: don't feel the need to play devil's advocate by expressing
Speaker 1: an opposing point of view just to do so. So
Speaker 1: if you find yourself starting to say, if I had
Speaker 1: to offer one criticism, stop, you don't have to offer
Speaker 1: any criticisms. Now. I do believe there is a place
Speaker 1: for robust discussion. Nothing is ever perfect, but I do
Speaker 1: think this leader is on to something that playing devil's
Speaker 1: advocate is not always helpful. When people refer to playing
Speaker 1: devil's advocate, they are not expressing the alternative view in
Speaker 1: their own voice. They are voicing the perspective of this
Speaker 1: hypothetical devil's advocate. Likewise, when people say if I had
Speaker 1: to offer one criticism, they are not standing behind their feedback.
Speaker 1: They are presenting it as though offering a criticism or
Speaker 1: compulsory as though someone said they had to offer one critique,
Speaker 1: but that is almost never the case. If something is fine,
Speaker 1: it is fine. If you see something that you believe
Speaker 1: needs to be changed, then state what that is and
Speaker 1: what you would like to see be different. For instance,
Speaker 1: you could simply say I think we should consider how
Speaker 1: newcomers might experience this new procedure, or overall, I thought
Speaker 1: the event was great, but there was a bottleneck when
Speaker 1: people were checking in. Maybe we could explore a different
Speaker 1: system for next year. Neither of these comments feels overly
Speaker 1: negative or critical. They are forward looking and productive and direct.
Speaker 1: They are intended to help the team get better. Sometimes, though,
Speaker 1: feedback or offering a different perspective isn't actually going to
Speaker 1: help the team get better. This might be because the
Speaker 1: feedback isn't relevant to anything that's happening in the future,
Speaker 1: or because there is nothing that can be done about
Speaker 1: whatever the irritation is. When that is the case, you
Speaker 1: can just hold your tongue. Sometimes kids are taught when
Speaker 1: offering feedback to evaluate if something is honest or kind
Speaker 1: or necessary. I might also add productive to the list,
Speaker 1: and these are valuable questions for adults to ask as
Speaker 1: well before offering criticism. If it will be helpful, great.
Speaker 1: But if you are arguing just to argue or criticizing
Speaker 1: because that feels more sophisticated than simply letting something that
Speaker 1: is acceptable be acceptable, just remember the devil doesn't need
Speaker 1: another advocate. You don't have to offer any criticism at all.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
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