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LEADERSHIP Masterworks

Leadership Masterworks

The Teachable Leader

The most important feedback you receive may be the feedback nobody wants to give you.

Royce White October 9, 2026 3-minute read Full Version

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Imagine asking your team a simple question: “Does anyone have any concerns?”

Nobody speaks. You conclude that everyone is satisfied, your decisions are understood, and things are going well.

Yet what if the silence means something entirely different? What if people have learned that disagreeing with you is simply not worth the trouble?

A 2026 study of twelve school principals caught my attention because it examined how leaders cultivate cultures of honest feedback. The researchers identified vulnerability, listening, transparency, and trust as important relational conditions.¹ It was a small study, certainly not enough to establish universal conclusions, but it reinforced something I have observed throughout decades of leadership development:

People learn whether they can tell us the truth by watching what happens when someone tries.

A leader may have an open-door policy while remaining remarkably difficult to approach. He may sincerely invite criticism but respond with impatience, explanations, interruptions, or subtle disapproval. Eventually, people stop bringing him problems. He may interpret their silence as trust, when it actually reflects the absence of it.

A leader cannot faithfully steward a reality he is unwilling to hear about.

The People Who Can Help Us Most

I often encourage leaders to seek feedback from people they trust—and from a couple of people who hate them!

There is humor in that advice, but considerable wisdom as well. Friends may hesitate to tell us difficult truths because they love us. Critics may notice weaknesses our friends have learned to overlook. Neither affection nor hostility determines whether someone’s observations are accurate. We must learn to distinguish the attitude of the messenger from the truthfulness of the message.

Proverbs 18:13 warns against answering before listening. James 1:19 instructs us to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger. Those instructions are particularly important when the person speaking has less authority than we do—and may have more to lose by telling us something uncomfortable.

Becoming the Leader People Can Tell the Truth To

Teachability does not require agreeing with every criticism. It requires something more difficult: listening long enough to understand, examining what is true, acknowledging our mistakes, and changing what needs to change.

Here is a place to begin.

Ask three people one question: “What is something I do that makes it harder for you to speak honestly with me?”

Ask someone you trust, someone affected by your leadership, and someone who has disagreed with you. Listen without defending yourself. Consider their observations carefully, identify one behavior you need to change, and begin practicing its replacement.

Then, thirty days later, return and ask whether they have noticed a difference.

That last step matters enormously. An apology may communicate sincerity, but consistent change gives people a reason to trust us again.

One of my goals in life is to make friends of my enemies. I cannot make someone become my friend, but I can become the kind of person with whom friendship is possible. Sometimes the person who came prepared to criticize us encounters genuine humility instead. We may gain wisdom, and perhaps even a friend.

By God’s grace, we may gain both.

One Question Worth Asking Yourself

If the people most affected by your leadership could tell you one uncomfortable truth without fearing your reaction, what would they say—and what have you done that might make them hesitate?

Explore the Full Masterwork: Read The Teachable Leader — the seven practices, deeper coaching, Scripture, and research.

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