Don't Punch Down: Handling Online Criticism

Leaders need to discern between engaging critical feedback and feeding trolls

Photo by Firmbee.com on Unsplash

Here’s a reality for any leader of consequence in the 21st century: You will have a small army of online critics. This requires a certain kind of resilience and wisdom.

First, resilience. I wrote about this a bit a while back but I want to expound on this. We live in this digital age and it has never been easier to express ourselves online. The friction between an initial thought and publishing that thought is nil. We should encourage folks to live by James 1:9 (Quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger), but many, including many Christians, do not.

What this means is leaders will see their critics up close, perhaps in ways closer than any other time in human history. Some of these critics will be in good faith (though they should have emailed/texted/called privately). Many critics will not be in good faith. I can’t stress this enough. It’s not a matter of if people—fellow Christians—will unfairly criticize you online. It’s a matter of when. As a leader, you have to decide how you will internalize this.