“You always talk about how great your team is,” my manager said to me, “and it’s not good that you do.”

Talk about confusing. I didn’t know how to reply to that one. I do know my teams’ weaknesses and strengths. I work with them on the weaknesses. So why would I tell my peers and my manager about the weaknesses all the time? Why wouldn’t I instead talk about the strengths, the good stuff, the positive stuff about my teams?

Being very confused about this feedback from my manager, I asked people I’ve worked with at other companies why talking positively about my team to peers and other teams is a problem. They told me it sounded like I thought my teams were better than everyone else’s. “I never said that to anyone,” was my reply. Their reply, “Well, it’s implied since you always talk positively about your teams.”

This is crazy. Or maybe dysfunctional is a better word.

People talk. When I talk about my teams’ strengths to those outside of my team, eventually, those comments get back to them. When I share negative things about my teams to others outside of my team, those negative comments also get back to them. Now what is more inspiring to you; knowing the leader of your organization is saying positive things about your organization – or negative things?

 

I gotta go with positive.

 

If there are issues preventing the team from delivering, yes, I will share that circumstance with my manager AND I’ll also share what I’m doing to fix those issues. I’ve replaced management staff and eliminated positions to fix problems within my teams; I don’t hide from the negative aspects of my team members.

I simply see no reason to only talk about the negatives and not the positives when it comes to my teams especially when I know that what I say will eventually filter down to my team members. I prefer they hear motivating comments than negative, de-motivating comments. I’ll go with positive. In the long run, the team will perform better and problems will be resolved more easily.

Which would you go with? Positive or negative?