This article was originally published on Product Coalition.
It took me a long time to learn this, but it's really important for both your progress and your mental health.
There's always going to be somebody telling you that you're not enough of something. Sometimes you have to take what you hear ith a grain of salt and decide if their opinion really matters to you or not.
I'm not talking about constructive feedback — you learn to recognize truly valuable and well-intentioned feedback and it's often worth taking that kind of input to heart if it aligns with where you see yourself going.
But a lot of what you hear from others is noise. Know yourself. Focus on continuous improvement inspired by your own goals for your growth. And block out the naysayers.
This is a lesson that great women and men have had to learn for millennia before us. And you can learn it, too.
“Whatever you do you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there will always be someone to tell you that you are wrong.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Maura Charles is the founder of Keep it Human. As a Product Leadership Coach and Consultant, she is on a mission to help teams and organizations embrace human skills like communication and emotional intelligence in their ways of working.
She brings 25 years of experience as an editor, product manager, and digital business leader to bear on the challenges of building human-centered high-performing tech teams.
If you'd like to develop more human business and tech teams that hum together to drive results, check out Keep it Human and follow Maura Charles on LinkedIn.