The same should be true in a business with any leader and his team. If a leader is not open to criticism, then how will he improve? In other words, how does change occur without other actors showing us an alternative path or pointing out that the path we are on is not the right one?
Bill Gates says that, as a Bridge player, he has a coach who is always by his side. She is there not to tell him that she is excellent and to flatter him, keeping her job by dint of being accommodating. She is there to show you every flaw. She pays him to listen to his mistakes.
The problem is that most of us human beings refuse to listen to our mistakes, we prefer not to see them or ignore them.
As an Executive Coach, I see in countless opportunities teams designed with a single objective: to show the leader that he is the Sun King, that he shines and is beautiful. They are satellites of his narcissism.
Believe me, dear reader, this is much more common than you think. C-Levels tend to hear less and less about their own mistakes. As it happens in politics, in the high summits of power the ears are pricked and less and less is heard (always a little less). Power has worked like this since time immemorial. The Prince’s advisers and buffoons tended more to ingratiate themselves with his Majesty than to show him her imperfections.
That is why being a leader requires a sharpening of the ears, that is why it is so important to walk through the offices, spend time with people, have conversations with the cleaning staff, go to the plain to see what is happening. Because there the leader can receive diagonal and transversal messages that allow him to empower his role. Strengthen it.
diversity it is also surrounding myself with people different from me who tell me the things that make me uncomfortable to hear. diversity it is accepting that there are other narratives besides mine, because my storytelling is not the center of the universe. diversity It is realizing that there are many ways of leading that are different from mine (and even better).
A leader who secludes himself in his comfort zone, who dedicates himself to asking his little mirror how pretty he or she is, is relegated to his self-referential ego, subjected to his short-term gratification.