The Essentials: Handling Fierce Criticism

Women at Work

Harvard Business Review

Entrepreneurship, Workplace, Business/management, Business/entrepreneurship, Progress, Resources, Gender, Equality, Business/careers, Women, Hbr, Careers, Management, Business, Harvard, Human

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2024

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you’re in a leadership role, or any role where you are outspoken and visible, chances are that at some point people are going to criticize you, sometimes fiercely, sometimes publicly. Are you ready for that? Two women who’ve felt the heat because of decisions they’ve made or arguments they’ve put forward—or simply because of who they are—reflect on the ways they’ve steeled themselves and dealt with the fallout. Listening to them recount how they responded to fierce criticism will hopefully help you think about how you might respond, both when you see it coming and when you don’t.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Once your business gets to a certain size, the cracks start to emerge.
0:05.0	Things you used to do in a day take a week.
0:08.0	You deserve a customized solution, and that's Net Suite. Learn more when you download NetSuite's popular
0:15.5	KPI checklist absolutely free at NetSuite.com slash women at work. That's NetSuite
0:22.3	dot com slash women at work. If you're in netsuite.com slash women at work.
0:25.0	If you're in charge of an organization or in any role where you're visible and outspoken.
0:35.8	If you host a podcast, chances are that at some point people will criticize you.
0:42.0	Sometimes fiercely, sometimes publicly.
0:45.0	Are you ready for that?
0:47.3	Ru Chika Toshan wasn't, at least not at the beginning of her career
0:51.5	as a finance journalist, an advocate for diversity in business.
0:56.0	She'd written an article about a new immigration category for the spouses of work visa holders,
1:01.8	and in the comments section a reader called her let's just say the
1:05.8	C word and I was absolutely shocked I mean none of my training as a journalist had prepared me for it.
1:15.0	There weren't conversations really being had,
1:17.6	and the little bit that I was kind of hearing,
1:20.0	a lot of it was from male journalists who were like,
1:22.0	oh, let it just roll off your shoulders, it's no big deal.
1:25.0	And this nameless, faceless troll had really just attacked me ad hominem for who I was.
1:32.0	It was really painful and it's been well over a decade since that happened.
1:37.0	I wish I could say that was the last time, but as a woman on the internet, as a woman of color on the internet, it still regularly happens often
1:45.9	in actually now more subtle ways.
	...

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