TAKE YOUR MEDICINE
One of the biggest challenges we face in our pursuit of success is the response we choose to feedback. It could be feedback from a coach, a boss, or some other superior, from an equal like a teammate or a colleague, or from someone we’re responsible for leading ourselves. Using that insight that others provide can be so important to our improvement. It can help make us stronger and better in areas we may not otherwise recognize we are weak. It’s information that can help us learn and grow. That’s why the author and leadership expert Ken Blanchard called feedback "the breakfast of champions.”
At the same time and despite its value, feedback can feel threatening. It can feel negative and critical. Even if it’s honest and well-intentioned, it can expose our insecurity and make us defensive. Feedback can encourage us to put up our defenses and protect our fragile ego.
This is a test each of us are administered on a regular basis. I don’t know what exactly it looks like or who it might come from in your life, but I do know your willingness and your ability to accept feedback - especially when it’s not easy to take - is one of the clearest ways you demonstrate your identity as a champion. It validates that you have the mindset and the toughness that define a winner in any area of life. Yes, honesty from others can be a tough pill to swallow, but today I want to challenge and encourage you to do what champions do, and be willing to take your medicine like an adult.
Your willingness and your ability to accept feedback - especially when it’s not easy to take - is one of the clearest ways you demonstrate your identity as a champion.
Ever tried or seen someone else try to give medicine to a toddler? It can get pretty ugly. Because they don’t like the way it tastes going down, a toddler refuses to accept what in reality could be exactly what they need in order to get better. That’s a great analogy for the immature approach the loser takes to feedback. Because it’s unpleasant and uncomfortable, they refuse to take it, and therefore miss out on the benefits it can provide.
So how do you get a toddler to take their medicine? You have to do it softly and gently - and often inconspicuously. You ground it up and mix it in with some applesauce or some pudding and hope they accept it without throwing a fit. In reality, it’s a huge pain. It’s worth considering today if this is the approach others are forced to take with you, just to get you to take in the feedback they’re trying to offer. Are you so fragile and so insecure that people have to dilute the truth or try to manipulate it just so you’ll accept it? When it comes to feedback, do people have to treat you like a toddler?
Or are you strong and mature enough to take your medicine like an adult? Like, just give it to me straight. I may not like it, but I can take it. Sure, it’s tough to take your medicine like that, but that’s what grown-ups do. That’s what people who want the truth and are tough enough to handle it do. That’s what champions do. They recognize that even though honest feedback isn’t always easy to accept, in reality it could be exactly what they need to get better. Because that’s their primary focus - getting better - they’re willing to take and use anything they can to improve.
Cultivating a healthy and productive response to feedback isn’t easy, but if you’re serious about becoming your best, it is important. It requires you to set your insecurities aside and fight the desire to get defensive. Those are challenges each of us face in those moments of testing when someone chooses to offer us some honest insight. Giving in to those challenges means choosing the negative and critical response of the loser. It’s evidence of our weakness and immaturity.
Instead, I hope you'll choose the hard but necessary way of the winner. Demonstrate your desire to improve, respond to your moment of testing with toughness, and use the information that’s available to learn and grow. Even if it’s a tough pill to swallow, choose to do what champions do - what winning requires you to do - and take your medicine. It might be just what you need to get better.