Why top leaders kill their own ideas — and build stronger teams because of it

As the son of a football coach and a former athlete, I welcome feedback. And I don’t really care how it’s delivered, especially when the critique is thoughtful and relevant. My objectives are to win, serve more clients, and grow my business. I don't spend time protecting my ego or wasting energy on hurt feelings.

Feedback is a growth engine, wherever it comes from.

But my personal attitude doesn’t mean that every criticism is easy to hear or convenient to address. The ability to accept tough feedback and pivot with speed and agility is the mark of a resilient leader. Even more crucial in this uncertain business environment is a leader's ability to cultivate a resilient culture within their team and throughout their organization.

A recent experience demonstrated the power of feedback and how it can drive better results.

The first employee engagement growth model

For nearly two years, I've been writing and speaking about employee engagement and the tactics executives can use to help people thrive at work. To help leaders visualize the vital role of people-focused business initiatives, I had been using the Employee Engagement Growth Model to outline the objectives and strategies for an engaged workforce.

In the pyramid-shaped framework, employee engagement sits at the top, as it is the overall organizational goal. Below this capstone are the four business outcomes of highly engaged teams: collaboration, productivity, innovation, and retention. My colleagues and I have found that engaged employees require workplaces that promote well-being, belonging, trust and meaningful work. These individual needs are next. At the base of the pyramid are six leadership strategies to promote engagement: communication, inclusive leadership, physical and psychological safety, opportunity systems, relationship-building and career navigation.

During a presentation before roughly 75 HR executives, I was using this pyramid framework to discuss employee engagement and the leader’s role. As I gave the speech, I could tell that the audience was engaged and interested in what I was saying. I opened the Q&A session, looking forward to some thought-provoking comments. That was exactly what happened, just not the way I expected.

Someone stood up and asked, “Don, I love your employee engagement model, but I'm a little confused. Why is it presented as a pyramid? Instead of a hierarchy, it seems that all of these elements work together.”

I'll admit that the question was uncomfortable. A smile may have been on my face, but under the collar, I was sweating a little bit. This person’s critique was in front of 75 influential people, about a framework that my colleagues and I had spent a lot of time on. At this moment, many in my shoes would have become defensive. But I did not.

I paused and thought about this person’s feedback. After a moment, I said, “You’re right. All of these different things do work together. I’m going to talk with my team, because we need to rework our graphic.”

A better strategy and a clearer message

Now my team and I use a tree metaphor to talk about employee engagement and everything in the workplace environment that helps it flourish.

The leadership strategies are the roots that nourish employee morale. These practices also strengthen the entire organization, keeping it steady and healthy year over year. By cultivating strong roots, leaders contribute to engaged employees that foster the well-being of others. The individual needs are portrayed as branches, supporting the fruit—or desired organizational outcomes.

Everything works together in an ecosystem, resulting in better workplaces that win in the marketplace and meet their financial objectives. This new Employee Engagement Growth Model is a clearer way to communicate the message: that people-centric leadership is a critical executive capability.

Cultivate a resilient culture with clear communication

This experience was valuable in a couple of ways. First, the feedback itself. Most people are good at giving feedback, but few people are as comfortable receiving criticism—especially in public. But this is something I see often in high-performing leaders: They’re comfortable accepting new information and insights, no matter how, where or when it’s delivered.

Second, I want to highlight my team’s resilience and their ability to adapt to the critique I received. Our content team immediately brainstormed ideas and created a new, improved model. They pivoted quickly, even though we had been using the previous framework for more than a year.

So, as leaders, how do we create resilient cultures and agile teams?

Quite simply, people become more resilient the better their leaders communicate. For a team to accept feedback graciously and adapt quickly, leaders must:

1. Restate the overall objectives of the project

2. Note the gaps that the feedback highlights

3. Explain what exactly needs to change

4. Align the changes to your business objectives

When asking your team to pivot, especially after they have spent months on a project, it’s crucial to be as transparent as possible. Acknowledge the work involved in the change—it's often more than leaders realize. Answer questions in a timely way. Share any new information, even if you don’t have all the details. More than anything, communicate your rationale; tell your team why change is necessary.

Resilience starts with leadership

The feedback I received from that HR executive wasn’t comfortable. But it was right. And by acknowledging that, real growth became possible. That attitude guided how my team approached the pivot; they saw it as an opportunity to get it right.

That’s the culture leaders build when they accept feedback without defensiveness and communicate the reason for change with clarity. Your team learns that being wrong is less costly than staying wrong. They learn that speed and agility matter more than protecting what’s already been done.

In uncertain times, that’s your competitive advantage. Not the frameworks you build or the strategies you deploy, but your team’s ability to adjust quickly when the market or a customer or someone in the audience tells you something important. That only happens when leaders model resilience themselves—when they pause, listen, and act with conviction.

The pyramid was a good model. The tree is better. And the real lesson has nothing to do with graphics. High-impact leaders create cultures where the best ideas win, wherever and whoever they come from. That’s how organizations excel.

Companies that get employee engagement right outperform their competitors across the board. Yet too many executives struggle to build workplaces where people feel valued, trusted, and empowered to deliver their best. For deeper insights on building engagement through purpose and connection, look for my new book, The Employee Engagement Handbook.

About the Author

Donald Thompson is Managing Director of the Workplace Options Center for Organizational Effectiveness, host of the High Octane Leadership podcast, and author of The Employee Engagement Handbook.