Thought Leader: Lessons from Yoda about handling negative feedback

We become better leaders by encouraging negative feedback from our followers, writes Nelson Phillips, professor of innovation and strategy at Imperial College Business School.

The only thing worse than giving negative feedback is receiving it. That’s my conclusion after many years of talking to MBA students and managers about feedback.

While everyone generally agrees that giving constructive feedback is a key leadership skill, the importance of being receptive to negative feedback, particularly when it comes from followers, is much less well recognised.

This is unfortunate – not only for the brave individuals lower down the hierarchy who try to share their observations – but for the leaders who would benefit from receiving them. There are many aspects of leadership practice which only followers experience first-hand – and this makes their feedback leadership gold dust.

Good leaders listen to their followers and become great leaders; mediocre leaders don’t – and stay stuck in their ways.

Learning the Jedi way

In order to navigate the emotional barriers that prevent constructive discussion of this subject, I will draw on an unconventional resource for leadership development: the wisdom of Yoda.

While it is easy to forget more than 40 years later, the first Star Wars movie was not simply a commercial success, it was a cultural phenomenon. Part of the reason for its impact was the way the writers drew on what US author Joseph Campbell called “the hero’s journey” to tap into the deepest myths that underpin human culture.

But, at least as importantly, the writers crafted some of the most memorable characters in any fictional work. From the swashbuckling Han Solo to the destructive Darth Vader, the characters connect to something deep in the human psyche and remain prominent in Western culture.

One of the most remarkable characters was Yoda, and his focus on training Jedi makes his observations particularly relevant to thinking about leadership development. 

Embracing failure

So, what does Yoda say about accepting negative feedback from followers?

As he explained to Luke Skywalker: “The greatest teacher, failure is”. Negative feedback is a limited form of failure which can act as a great teacher.

The first and most obvious reason for accepting (and even encouraging) negative feedback from our followers is that we learn and grow when we find out what we need to improve on. 

While positive feedback can be helpful and emotionally rewarding, it only goes so far. Leaders who encourage negative feedback, and who engage with the resulting comments constructively, will accelerate their development.

This requires careful framing and interpretation, of course. When feedback comes from followers, especially colleagues two or three levels down a hierarchy, it is often jumbled and may be mixed up with a lot of emotion. Always remember that for someone lower in the hierarchy to speak up often requires a lot of courage.

So, the first step is to filter out emotion (on both sides) and to look for the meaning.

Asking questions

We can do this by trying to get to the core of what the person is saying, while managing our own emotional reaction. (If we realise that we fear feedback from our colleagues lower down the organisation, we should begin by asking ourselves why.)

One way to deal with emotions is to respond by asking constructive questions. Questions show interest and also help to engage the rational parts of the brain of the person providing the feedback. The result is that the emotional content will be reduced, and the follower will feel listened to and that their feedback is being considered.

Not only will this enable us to learn something about ourselves but, by accepting and engaging with a follower is are trying to express negative feedback, we are role-modelling what a good response looks like.

Our example sets the bar for effectively ‘hearing’ negative feedback. We are then able to demand this of others when we are in the position of giving feedback.

Do or do not do

As leaders, we should not say we “will try to do better” after receiving negative feedback. If we are not sure about the accuracy of the feedback, explaining that we will think about it is fine. But we should then make clear what action we intend to take as a result.

In the wise words of Yoda: “Do or do not. There is no try.” It’s not about “trying to be better”.

We should say whether or not the feedback is something we intend to take on board and how we will change our behaviour. If it isn’t, we must make it clear that we appreciate the feedback but that we are not going to alter how we do things or the decisions we make because we are certain that we have good reasons for doing what we are doing.

Making our own luck

I'll end by quoting another Star Wars legend, Obi-Wan Kenobi: “In my experience there is no such thing as luck.”

Good leaders don’t rely on luck but focus on understanding themselves and constantly improving.

Negative feedback, while sometimes uncomfortable, is key to leadership development, and learning to hear and engage with negative feedback is a key skill that all leaders need to acquire and hone.

So, be less Darth Vader and more Yoda – especially when it comes to feedback.