“Thanks for telling me, that’s fair” is a sentence that makes people want to help you again.

REFLECTION

WHAT THIS MEANS

Feedback is a small risk for whoever gives it, and they are reading your reaction to decide whether to bother again. A calm acknowledgement pays them back immediately and makes you somebody worth telling things to. Defensiveness gets remembered too, which is how people end up surrounded by politeness and no information.

Practise the reaction before you need it, because in the moment your instinct will be to explain. Say thanks, say what you took from it, and keep the context for later or drop it. Then do something with what they said, so the next person sees it was worth saying.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

Who told you something fair that you argued with instead?

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