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Melinda French Gates has shared her secret formula for handling conflict at work. She puts it off.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019m unhappy with work you have done, you will hear from me within 48 hours,\u201d French Gates told Bloomberg Business\u2018s Leaders with Francine Lacqua podcast this week. \u201cI\u2019m not going to tell you right away, because I need time to think it through.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019m angry about something [I do this] to calm down,\u201d she added. \u201cThat\u2019s on me.\u201d<\/p>\n
This practice, she explained, is less about withholding criticism and more about delivering it with honesty, integrity, and grace. The flip side of the 48-hour clock is just as deliberate. If the window closes without any feedback, that means employees are in the clear.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they pass the 48-hour mark, they can be confident that the job they did was a good job,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to get to your performance review and have a surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is a practice the billionaire philanthropist has been honing for decades. She cochaired the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world\u2019s largest private charitable organization, from 2000 until she stepped down in 2024, about three years after the couple\u2019s divorce.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Today, French Gates runs her own organization, Pivotal Ventures, an investment and incubation company she founded in 2015 to advance opportunities for women and families in the U.S. As part of her divorce settlement from the Microsoft founder, French Gates received $12.5 billion to direct toward philanthropic work through Pivotal. She committed an additional $1 billion each year through 2026 to advance women\u2019s power globally.<\/p>\n
Melinda French Gates\u2019 approach to leadership and how it compares to other executives<\/p>\n
Bloomberg\u2019s Lacqua framed French Gates\u2019 approach to feedback as her \u201cleadership superpower,\u201d one that requires emotional discipline and candor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing clear is kind,\u201d French Gates responded, \u201cbecause I\u2019m giving them feedback so they can actually grow and become better.\u201d<\/p>\n
French Gates also described her 48-hour feedback mantra as maintaining personal integrity while keeping the other person\u2019s dignity intact: \u201cgracious, thoughtful, before you go into it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her philosophy conflicts with some of the more aggressive feedback cultures from other executives. Ray Dalio, for example, built his firm\u2019s culture around what he calls \u201cradical transparency,\u201d a system in which employees at every level are expected to deliver unfiltered, real-time criticism, and nearly every meeting is recorded for post-mortem analysis.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you start to realize, intellectually, that being really truthful with each other is something that is to be treasured,\u201d Dalio told Business Insider. \u201cIt\u2019ll build trust.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of trust that\u2019s going on,\u201d added Dalio, who founded Bridgewater Associates, the world\u2019s largest hedge fund firm. He even recalled to Business Insider a time in which a junior staffer sent him an email grading his performance in a meeting as a \u201cD-\u201d for being disorganized.<\/p>\n
So while Dalio prefers immediacy and unvarnished feedback, French Gates opts for more reflection time and a respectful tone.<\/p>\n
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella takes a slightly different approach. When he took the helm of Microsoft, he pushed to transform a \u201cknow-it-all\u201d culture into a \u201clearn-it-all\u201d culture\u2014one grounded in humility, curiosity, and psychological safety. It\u2019s a mantra inspired by American psychologist Carol Dweck, who is best known for her research on motivation and mindset.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you take two people, one of them is a learn-it-all and the other one is a know-it-all, the learn-it-all will always trump the know-it-all in the long run, even if they start with less innate capability,\u201d Nadella told Bloomberg in a 2016 interview.<\/p>\n
Still, French Gates is clear she doesn\u2019t shy away from difficult conversations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t mind conflict,\u201d she told Bloomberg. \u201cI learned to do it in a way for me that maintained my integrity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
#Melinda #French #Gates #rule #conflict #work #Wait #hours<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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