When I started my first company, the only feedback my team ever got from me was praise. I was too scared to be critical.

This was in the 2010s, when you couldn’t go a day without seeing a headline about millennials and how we coddled we were. Leaders claimed that they had to walk on eggshells around us, fearing that if they gave the “participation generation” anything but praise, we would quit.

As a leader of millennials myself at the time, it felt like there was some truth in that. But it wasn’t because we were coddled. It’s because we weren’t taught how to give or receive feedback.

I was a millennial in my mid-twenties, and I had no idea how to talk to my team when they didn’t meet my expectations. So instead, I became their biggest cheerleader and hoped they would figure things out on their own.

Eventually, my habit of avoiding feedback became a problem I couldn’t ignore. I looked around one day and realized I was leading a team that lacked accountability, thrived on gossip, swept issues under the rug, and shared their frustrations only after they resigned. Something had to give.

Everything changed when I took a communication class from Barry-Wehmiller University (now Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute). I learned so much about how to communicate, including some incredibly valuable feedback methods that I still use and teach today.

I shared everything I learned with my team, and it completely changed our culture for the better.

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