Chris Wheatley

Four Steps for Receiving Difficult Feedback Without Defensiveness

Leadership expert Chris Wheatley argues that the person receiving hard feedback—not only the person giving it—determines whether candor is safe enough to recur. Drawing on a colleague’s blunt critique of his own defensive, condescending tendencies, he sets out a four-step “TACT” method: thank the speaker, acknowledge their experience without necessarily agreeing, commit to a next step, and follow up with thanks. The aim, he says, is to reduce the personal risk of speaking honestly across relationships and hierarchies.