You can’t please or satisfy everyone, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.
Good leaders design events and meetings that get to the most important topic to discuss but do so respectfully and inclusively. They don’t want team members or group participants to walk away feeling slighted or in any way upset by what transpired. Given that people are in charge of their own feelings and interpretations, this is a tall order.
Inevitably, at a meeting, team experience, offsite, or workplace gathering, someone on the team or in the group will find the experience less than satisfying.
Some may even feel offended by something said. Or insulted by a speaker or be aghast at where a discussion ended. In most cases, they get over their distaste or share the feedback directly with the leader.
But on occasion, they elevate their concerns to those powerful enough to hold the leader accountable for their dissatisfaction.
The leader is then confronted about exactly what happened and why. Clients, senior leaders, and powerful peers don’t like to field negative comments. They must act on what they have been told, so they naturally engage the leader, asking for an explanation.
Good leaders listen to this feedback and take it to heart. They examine what occurred and why it produced such a negative reaction. If the feedback is reasonable, actionable, and on-point, they promise to address it.
But in far too many cases, a single voice is not worth yielding to.
Unless a leader plays it safe and engages the team, audience, or group in a guarded way, they are likely to hear an occasional complaint or learn of a person who was incensed by something that was said or happened.
In an audience of 100 people, how much weight should a leader place on a single voice? In some cases, a lot. In other cases, not much.
Learning of such feedback either directly or from above, good leaders take it seriously. They attempt to triangulate with others what could have possibly led to such a complaint. Is it reasonable? Did others feel the same way but refrained from sharing it?
If action needs to be taken, a good leader will take it. But they refuse to bow to a single voice unless it is justified.
The danger of allowing a lone voice to influence future meetings and events is to become overly guarded and to dilute the elements that make for lively discussions, unique experiences, and healthy debate.
When sharing stories, anecdotes, and conclusions is too risky, lest someone on the team or in the audience chooses to find it appalling, leaders become inauthentic and protective. A vanilla approach that hopefully satisfies everyone equates to giving up and giving in to the tyranny of one.
As famed storyteller Garrison Keillor liked to say, “Sometimes you have to look reality in the eye and deny it.” Meaning, sometimes a reality (one voice) is not worth engaging.
If something offensive, insulting, or demeaning is said, others will likely harbor the same negative interpretations. A single voice can sometimes carry too much weight. Don’t automatically let it bog you down.
