Some people think positive feedback works much better than negative. Other people think negative feedback works much better than positive. Who's right? They both are. - The first group of people tends to work in psychology and HR. - The second group of people tends to work on in technical or meritocratic fields where reality immediately tells you you're wrong: basketball, violin, programming, engineering. The general principle that contains both truths is this: _We learn best when positive feedback comes from humans, and negative feedback comes from reality. A good leader should encourage you in your competences, and then offer you the challenges where reality will show you the errors of your ways. Or maybe you'll succeed and prove the leader wrong. Leaders are wrong all the time. A good leader needs to be constantly aware of this to avoid leading with too heavy a hand.