In business, and in your personal life, the ability to anticipate and overcome criticism is one of the biggest differentiators between leaders, who make things happen, and followers, who may have great ideas but never seem to get things to go their way. In fact, leaders are not remembered for their dreams, aspirations, or intentions – they are remembered because they achieved results.
In my role as an advisor to entrepreneurs, I often find founders who have such conviction and passion for their new idea, that they can’t believe anyone could challenge it. They bristle quickly when investors or even potential customers raise issues with real value, competition, risk, and sustainability. The reality is that good ideas are always challenged, so you need to expect it.
The best entrepreneurs and business professionals learn to anticipate these push-backs before they happen, and respond calmly and effectively. I like the specifics on how to do this in the classic book, “The Agenda Mover: When Your Good Idea Is Not Enough,” by leadership expert Samuel B. Bacharach, Cornell Professor and cofounder of the Bacharach Leadership Group.
Bacharach details seven possible criticisms that every leader with a good idea should anticipate, and provides guidance on how to overcome each. I’ll paraphrase a few of his key points here, with comments from my own experience in business:
- Your new idea is too risky. A new idea is a step into the unknown and always represents some risk. Rather than arguing the level of risk, a better strategy is to highlight the size of the reward. Then mobilize your support for these rewards through testimonials, input from experts, and traction. Increasing your credibility will reduce the perceived risk by all.
- The idea will only make things worse. Resistors often make the argument that while the idea seems fine on the surface, something later is certain to turn things upside down. This usually means that your message needs clarification to offset generalized qualms. Narrow your focus through specific case studies and quantify value and results.
- This idea won’t change a thing. When faced with this type of “paternal” criticism, the best path is to again ground your case in very specific examples to show that while the idea might not be a total paradigm shift, it will at least represent a significant change in cost or return. Negotiate the time and resources to do a trial, and measure results.
- You don’t know the issues well enough. The main goal of this type of criticism is to challenge your ability to lead and question your credibility. The antidote to such criticism is usually less passion and more facts to show that you have done your homework, assembled expert validation, and are interested in full disclosure and opposing views.
- You’re doing it all wrong. “The way it’s always been done” may work well for routine repetitive tasks, but it never applies to new ideas. This argument is actually attacking your ability to execute, rather than the idea. To offset this criticism, you need to highlight your prior experience, the expertise of your team, and the quality of your advisors.
- It’s been done before. This sort of resistance is predicated on the assumption that there is historical knowledge or past experience that makes your idea irrelevant or doomed to failure. This can be countered best by a proactive comparison of specific elements of your new idea to past practice and experience. Burst the balloon of generalities.
- Someone has ulterior motives. This challenge is one of trust, implying some hidden agenda or self-serving motivation for you and your allies, such as huge financial rewards or positions of power. The best strategy here is to not to over-react or be defensive and highlight specific value to customers. This is where real leaders let others do the talking for them.
In all cases, the keywords for countering criticism and moving things forward are to anticipate, mobilize, negotiate, and sustain. Anticipate the agenda of others, mobilize your resources, negotiate buy-in and support, and get things done to sustain momentum in your campaign.
Don’t allow yourself to get involved in an escalating competition of egos, which can make others think that your ego is more important than seeing your idea come to fruition. True leaders in business with million-dollar ideas, like Bill Gates and Elon Musk, don’t stop until they have billion-dollar results. Where do you fit in this spectrum?
