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Universal Agreement Is Highly Overrated As A Leadership Strategy

I can't predict the impact on Washington politics of President Obama's visit to a Republican retreat and the resulting 82 minute confrontation, er, debate. Regardless of the outcome though, spending time with your critics is an under-appreciated method of growing into a confident leader.

Most of us naturally prefer to hang out with people with whom we agree. We like hearing we're smart and that our opinions are uniquely insightful. The ongoing validation - given and gotten - feels, well, validating.

But sometimes it's better to spend time with critics - the people who won't tell us what we WANT to hear but instead tell us what we NEED to hear: other interpretations of situations and information. New viewpoints. Fresh ideas. Re-drawn road maps. Pathways to improvement. Maybe even our mistakes (which are really the raw material for performance improvement.)

Critics being what they are, sometimes the conversation adjourns with an agreement to disagree. That's progress, not failure. Sometimes you must know where you DISAGREE to find where and how you might AGREE. And even the greatest gospel rarely produces instant, committed believers.

Critics. Nobody really likes 'em. Everybody has 'em. It's what you do with 'em that counts. Find one and begin the conversation.


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