“5 things I wish someone told me before I became a CEO” with Stephanie Wijkstrom

Master the skill of providing effective feedback. My tendency has always been very direct, if there is a problem, I elect to talk about it. I have learned to use some of the Gottman Method marriage counseling techniques in discussing learning points. “Soft start’ is when you talk about your feelings and needs and it is the antidote to criticism. When a problem arises, the person you are addressing it likely already knows and it doesn’t take too much to illuminate the scenario. When you focus on what you need moving forward, everything becomes a learning point and the feedback is far less threatening than focusing too much on the problem. In this way, I have learned to tone it down, it would have been helpful to know this one starting out in business.