Feedback doesn’t have to sting. In fact, it might be the secret weapon for success. In this interview, Vicky Regan, certified executive coach and founder of Hone Leadership, talks about why constructive criticism is more than just a management tool. For her, it’s a growth mindset in action. With 25 years of experience in business and tech leadership, Vicky has seen how the right kind of feedback can drive big transformation, not just in individuals, but across entire organizations.
Vicky’s approach is rooted in honesty. Through it, she guides executives to own their voice in the boardroom and transition through career pivots. She also explores how effective feedback loops can shift a team’s entire dynamic. Coaching with her results in many advantages, including no more cringing from criticism. Vicky will change the way you think about feedback, on purpose.
Q1: Vicky, your coaching practice is rooted in helping leaders embrace feedback as a growth catalyst. Can you walk us through the turning point in your own journey when you realized the true power of constructive criticism?
Vicky Regan: In the earlier days of my career, I was moving fast, juggling multiple roles, and hitting milestones. It worked—until it didn’t. I kept hitting walls because the pace and pressure weren’t sustainable. The feedback I received wasn’t about the outcomes; it was about how I was operating. One line stuck with me: “Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up.” At the time, I brushed it off. I couldn’t imagine how slowing down would be a strength. But after hitting the same wall more than once, I finally saw it: the very way I was working was working against me. That was a blind spot. Learning to see feedback not as criticism, but as clarity, shifted everything.
Q2: In your article on CEO Weekly, you emphasize that “coachability is one of the most underrated leadership skills.” How do you identify signs of low coachability in high-performing leaders, and what specific strategies do you use to increase their receptiveness to feedback?
Vicky Regan: A leader can absolutely be a high performer and still show low coachability. High achievers are often driven, results-oriented, and chasing the next win. But coachability isn’t about achievement—it’s about feedback orientation, humility, and curiosity.
Many leaders I coach have succeeded in environments where feedback was either overly vague (“Great job!”) or absent altogether because people hesitated to critique a top performer. Over time, this creates blind spots.
My strategy is to align coachability with their ambition. I show them how being truly coachable directly impacts performance, adaptability, and promotability. The data is compelling: coachable leaders see 9% better performance, are 28% more adaptable, and 30% more likely to be promoted. That gets their attention. Then we start building those skills.
Q3: Your approach often involves transforming fixed mindsets into adaptive leadership models. In the American Daily Post, you discuss “resilience as a mindset, not just a trait.” How do you incorporate this redefinition of resilience when guiding leaders through feedback that may initially feel like failure?
Vicky Regan: This is where a mindset shift is essential. Resilience helps you bounce back; adaptability helps you bounce forward. When leaders reframe feedback from “I failed” to “This is a path to growth,” the game changes.
One powerful tool I use is the Positive Intelligence framework. It teaches leaders to see setbacks as gifts or opportunities. When they adopt this perspective, they stop fearing feedback and start seeking it. That shift unlocks continuous improvement.
Q4: Constructive criticism can be particularly nuanced when coaching senior executives who are used to being the ones giving direction. How do you foster a psychologically safe space that allows these individuals to see feedback as an asset rather than a threat?
Vicky Regan: As leaders rise, the quality and quantity of feedback they receive often drop. This isn’t because they don’t need it—it’s because people assume they won’t be receptive, or that feedback isn’t necessary at that level.
I create safety by normalizing feedback as a leadership tool. Senior leaders have enormous influence on culture. When they openly seek, receive, and act on feedback, they signal that it’s not a weakness—it’s a strategic strength.
And the stats back it up: leaders who embrace feedback see improved outcomes across the board and are force multipliers of that impact. It’s not just about the individual career trajectory I mentioned earlier, with better performance, adaptability, and promotability, overall employee engagement improves as well. In fact, this type of feedback and coaching culture results in a 72% increase in engagement, which has significant business benefits, including increased profitability, performance, retention, and innovation.
Q5: From your feature in CEO Weekly, you describe helping clients “unpack resistance” to feedback by understanding its emotional and behavioral roots. Could you share a case or example where a leader’s entire trajectory shifted after confronting this resistance?
Vicky Regan: One client, a VP at a tech company, used to take feedback very personally. In her words, it felt like an indictment, not an insight. A few things started to happen as a result: senior executives took note of her reactionary and defensive position, and her peers and team members avoided any meaningful conversations that might trigger a reaction. This diminished her perceived leadership presence by the executives, weakened relationships with her peers, and her team engagement scores started to drop.
We worked on shifting from reaction to response. Simply starting with a genuine, “Thank you for this feedback,” was a big reset and set the stage for her. She learned to ask clarifying questions like, “Can you give me an example?” or “What impact did that have on you?” In some cases, she could brainstorm with the person about the actions she could take. That helped her stay grounded and focused on facts, not feelings.
Over time, she began implementing the feedback she received, then circling back to the person who gave it to share the changes she made. It built trust and boosted her credibility. The reflection for her was that she was seeing the forward momentum and continuous improvement she was making from the feedback she was receiving. Eventually, she became a model of how to receive feedback well, and her leadership brand transformed. The key was moving from a personal lens to a purpose-driven one.
Q6: As the founder of Hone Leadership, how do you ensure that your own team and coaching framework consistently evolve in response to feedback you receive from clients, peers, or even your own internal reflections?
Vicky Regan: I hold myself to the same standard I set for clients. When I receive feedback—especially if it surprises me—I get curious. I dig into the specifics, ask follow-up questions, and seek out improvement ideas.
I also keep top of mind that feedback is an opportunity, even when it’s hard to hear. It’s so important to create a space where people feel comfortable sharing their perspective, which is why it’s not enough to wait to receive feedback, you need to initiate the conversation. In fact, this started right from the beginning of my client engagements during onboarding discussions about best practices in the coaching process. I emphasize that if an approach, framework, or method isn’t effective, let’s have an open conversation so that we can pivot towards something that works better for them. Setting that tone early really helps lay the foundation for open communication.
Another effective feedback tool I have personally used for a long time is my own Personal Advisory Board (PAB), individuals whom I trust implicitly to be completely honest with their feedback on any subject. Some people have a PAB where they conduct formal meetings at a regular cadence. Mine is completely informal, never meeting as a group, and is a mixture of personal and professional connections. I highly recommend creating a PAB to anyone, it certainly has been a game-changer for me.
And here’s the stat I always come back to: leaders who actively seek feedback and act on it have 80% higher employee engagement. Nearly 95% of highly engaged employees say their employer takes their feedback seriously. It’s a clear reminder that when leaders truly listen and respond, they don’t just improve—they elevate everyone around them.
Conclusion
Vicky Regan doesn’t sugarcoat the truth, and that’s exactly why her clients thrive. Her view on feedback is simple: it’s powerful. Through Hone Leadership, she depicts how honesty fuels development, and growth doesn’t come at the cost of confidence. Vicky encourages leaders to listen, reflect, and respond with intention in one-on-one meetings, company-wide initiatives, or more.
In this interview, Vicky successfully showed how feedback can sharpen awareness, strengthen communication, and challenge people to evolve, without tearing them down. For her, it takes clarity, resilience, empathy, presence, and the willingness to hear what others see in you, even when it’s uncomfortable, for feedback to work. If leadership is a journey, feedback is your GPS. Vicky’s work shows us how to actually read the map.
