If you need a great proofer, I’ve got one for you. Cheri Smith has been proofing my articles/essays for, I think, eight years. She has made me at least appear professional for all this time. Oh, the mistakes she’s found …

Cheri is kind of a “sweet-ruthless.” She won’t let anything go that she sees, from a poorly worded phrase to the misuse of a word to a missing comma, but somehow her corrections are quite painless. But they are corrections make no mistake.

Now, when it comes to her reactions to my overall writing and the substance of my articles, it’s been a little different. There has been really no negative feedback over the years. She’s been quite complimentary. Sometimes she’ll offer positive feedback on her own. Other times I’ll ask for her feedback if I feel a bit uncertain. At those times she has offered me strong reassurance.

And then something happened a couple of weeks ago that was fascinating to me …

After her many positive responses over the years, I had a thought mildly agitating at the back of my brain. Mildly, I repeat.

If virtually all of her feedback is positive, is she telling me what she really thinks or is she placating me … even a little bit? Is she pulling her punches? It wasn’t an overwhelming thought, but it existed.

(By the way, like you, she has no idea I’m writing about this until she reads it. She’ll find out when she proofs it. If you are indeed reading this article then you can be sure she wasn’t bothered and she didn’t quit and delete my phone number.)

Avid readers of this Advisory might recall that my last essay was called “Cleopatra and Hypatia.” It was about the unfortunate history women have in society and particularly leadership.

I’m not a woman; this I know for a fact. And being a man, I could never experience what a woman has. I can empathize and intellectually understand, but I’ve never lived it.

Cheri, of course, has. So, I wanted to know from her perspective as a woman, how the article read to her. I texted her.

She texted me back: “I thought it was good.”

“Hm,” I thought, “this is going to be different.” I mean, her response wasn’t what one might call “effusive.”

And then she laid out a truth that knocked me sideways. It is exactly what I believe but for some inexplicit reason I left it out. It simply didn’t come to mind as I was writing.

Her suggestion amounted to two sentences … two! But it made the article at least 50 percent better.

And it did something else. In the moment I read her feedback, something magical happened … it instantly elevated all of her feedback from the past eight years.

It’s not that I ever disbelieved her straight out, I just wondered once in a while if she was being straight with me.

The fact that she was able to share a negative truth with me added credibility to all of her positive truths. Her compliments always meant a lot to me, but suddenly they carried more weight.

It all happened in one mind-blowing instant. And it felt amazing.

Remember leader, the courage to communicate a negative truth in a constructive way, as Cheri did, adds credibility to your positive truths.

I’ve also said many times in this space that the truthteller is a leader’s best friend.

What adds weight to their reassurances are the times they voice their disagreement. We need to know that people are not blowing smoke … that they are giving us truth as they see it.

There is real … how do I say … comfort in that. It’s a comfort in knowing you can believe what people are telling you.

And if I may make a further suggestion—if you don’t have a Cheri, find one.