The Recognition Gap

Why Criticism Isn't Always the Truth

Criticism can make you feel like you're failing.

When you might be flourishing.

Criticism is one person's point of view.

Keep searching for the truth.

What do you know you can do?

This is your value.

Where can your value be valued?

And by whom?

Where one leader suggests you're failing, another will say you're flourishing.

You must know who you're talking to.

Every valuation begins with the valuer.

Don't accept a valuation from people who think they don't need what you do.

Sometimes in a room, your contributions and your potential come into full view.

Some people will build a bigger table because you walked in.

Others will spend their energy making sure you never become too visible.

Managers have lenses.

Their lens shapes how they see the world.

It shapes how they see themselves.

And it shapes how they see you.

Overly harsh judgments.

Unfairly weighted feedback.

The manager's own insecurities.

Criticism doesn't always come from truth.

Your value isn't always reflected in five-star feedback.

Listen for what’s useful.

Your value is discovered in environments where your strengths are recognized instead of neglected or underused.

I spent a week with people who needed exactly what I'd spent my career learning to do.

Nothing about my résumé changed.

Nothing about my experience changed.

The room changed.

Your value increases in the right room.

A room with people who see you...

... and need what you do.