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Strategies for Dealing with Criticism as the Lawyer Leader

Leaders are the most criticized people in their organizations, especially the top leader.

It comes with the territory.

If you accept the responsibility of leadership, you are opening yourself up to inevitable criticism.

Effective leaders figure out how to handle criticism well and use it as a tool to increase their influence.

Conversely, insecure leaders end up wilting and fading in the face of criticism.

The following is a roadmap for handling criticism and actually using it to grow your firm.

Understanding Different Types of Criticism

There are two main categories of criticism.

Leaders must possess the wisdom to distinguish between the two different types of criticism.

Each type of criticism requires a different response.

First, there’s unfair, off-base, and malicious criticism.

This stuff hurts. It questions our character, our integrity, and our motives — and it’s painful.

Ignore this garbage. Laugh it off. Use it to motivate you. Do whatever it takes to not allow it to lodge itself in your confidence.

Second, there’s the criticism that has an element of truth.

This is where you’ll find true value. Figure out what is truth and use it to get better. You have been given a gift.

Once you identify the truth, respond with grace using the strategies below.

Three Ways to Handle Criticism as a Leader

1 – Know Yourself

Self-awareness is a significant leadership advantage. If you know what you’re good at and not good at, you can sort criticism appropriately.

Criticism about things that are not your strength is easy to handle. You can quickly and cheerfully deflect this type of criticism with responses like, “Oh yeah, you are right, I am not so good at that!”

On the other hand, criticism that hits on something you feel is your strength can be painful and demoralizing. Knowing this about yourself prepares you in advance to respond well.

It’s natural to respond defensively. But that is never a good look for a leader. Nothing good comes from defensive responses.

When it comes to truthful criticism, you will gain influence when you respond with authentic gratitude and repeat the truth embedded in the criticism.

2 – Make Necessary Changes

The second thing to do as lawyer leaders is make the changes we need to make.

When truthful criticism comes, there’s valuable feedback to be implemented, leading to our improvement.

It starts with owning it and admitting it out loud. This only comes from the base of maturity inside us.

Recognize the wisdom, and then make the change.

3 – Focus on Others

The third thing we can do as lawyer leaders is focus on others. Fight the urge to only see criticism from your point of view.

Criticism hurts the most when we stay focused on ourselves.

But if we focus on our team and helping them get better, that criticism doesn’t have anywhere to latch onto. It can’t plant a root inside us and harm us further.

When you move first and make the required changes, your team sees that, and you build influence with them.

And, if we focus on helping others and our team win, criticism becomes so much easier to let roll off our backs and move forward.

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