November 7, 2026 | Read online​

Can your team tell you you're wrong?

by Kevin 'KD' Dorsey

Let your team challenge you​
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You ask your reps to take feedback every week.
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When did they last see you take it?
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Think about the last time someone questioned a decision you made. Did you get curious? Or did you spend the next five minutes explaining why you were right?
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Your team notices.
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A rep can learn pretty quickly which questions get a real conversation and which ones get a lecture. After a few lectures, they may stop asking.
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The meeting gets quieter. You leave thinking everyone’s aligned.
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Meanwhile, the same problems keep showing up.
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Y’all, if you want people to improve without getting defensive, give them an example they can actually follow.
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Start with how you handle feedback about your own leadership.
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​1. Ask about something specific.​
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“Any feedback for me?” is a tough question to answer when you’re talking to the person who reviews your performance.
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Make it easier.
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Pick a recent moment your team experienced. A deal review. A decision about territory coverage. A customer call you joined.
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Ask:
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“What did I do that helped? What did I do that made your job harder?”
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Then give them time to think. Let them answer privately if they prefer. Don’t turn silence into proof that everything’s working.
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​2. Get the example before you give the explanation.​
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Suppose a rep says you take over customer calls.
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You might have a perfectly good reason. The deal was important. The answer was going sideways. You were trying to help.
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Hold that explanation for a minute.
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Ask which moment they mean. What happened before you jumped in? What were they trying to do? What happened afterward?
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You can understand their experience without agreeing with every conclusion.
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And sometimes the detail changes the conversation. Maybe the problem was that you corrected them in front of the customer when a quick debrief afterward would have worked.
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Now you have something useful to address.
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​3. Make one change they can see.​
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A good response needs more than “Thanks for being honest.”
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If the feedback is useful, say what you’ll change.
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For that customer call, it might be:
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“Before the next call, let’s agree on who leads each section and when you want me to step in.”
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If you disagree, explain the decision clearly. Show that you considered the feedback rather than treating the question as a challenge to your authority.
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You don’t have to accept every suggestion. You do have to make it worth speaking up.
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​4. Close the loop.​
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After the next call, ask whether the change helped.
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Did the rep have room to lead? Were you able to contribute at the right moment? What still needs adjusting?
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This is where your team finds out whether the conversation mattered.
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If they gave you useful feedback and nothing changed, another invitation to “be candid” won’t carry much weight.
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​Your move this week​
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Choose one person on your team and one recent decision or interaction.
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Ask what you could have handled better.
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Listen without immediately defending yourself. Decide what you’ll do with the answer. Follow through.
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Your title gives you responsibility for the team’s performance.
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It doesn’t give you a pass on improving your own.
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KD

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