In business, leaders are often tasked with selling a vision. Sometimes it’s a vision they can see because they had a hand in designing it, brainstorming about it, or attending the multiplicity of meetings it usually takes in a bureaucratic system to get a vision onto a piece of paper.

Later on, when the vision works, the leader is hailed as a visionary and is then invited to stages, platforms, and boards to tell others about how they accomplished the vision, led teams through the seeing of the vision, or wrangled support from recalcitrant others to make sure the vision stayed coherent. Of course, if the vision doesn’t work, those same leaders are castigated, criticized, and critiqued from stages, platforms, and boards by people who believe they could “do it better.”

But here’s the thing: The critics can’t do it better. That’s why they’re critics. If they could lead a team with a vision better than that of the leader, they’d be doing those acts of leadership. And the same can be observed in the opposite direction: The supporters can’t do a better job either. That’s why they’re supporters. If they could lead a team with a vision better than the leader’s, they’d be doing those acts of leadership.

If you’re in the arena, both the boos and the applause are irrelevant to the thing you’re doing.