Ah, John! I relate to everything in your post. (And totally agree, feedback on training forms is different from the rest... and yet, the skill set for receiving feedback well is the same.)

I love the story you share about the critical president. Do you believe his criticisms based on outcomes he'd outlined ahead of time as necessary for the meeting, or do you think this was a case of "Dear Abby" syndrome? (This is my fun name for what I've noticed to be an instinctive reaction to learning a better way to be -- deciding that somebody *else* needs to change.)