When people criticize negative feedback, they often misunderstand what it means to be an effective leader. We are surrounded by books and articles advising leaders to inspire. Inspirational leadership has therefore become the expectation, and certainly no one will be inspired by the phrase “you’re dumber than a box of rocks.”
Inspiring, however, does not mean sugarcoating. Actually, it often means finding a way to motivate people to fix a problem. Everyone is happy to pass out the candy, but eventually someone must tell the kids that eating all that candy is not healthy. The “cool uncle” is not a leader, your mom is.