Don’t Give it, Go First and Receive Feedback

Individual like you and me originate actions that spice up life but being a ‘starter’ is not always fun. Going first can be risky because it frequently attracts criticism and judgment, and to many of us, that is enough reason not to take the lead.

Generally, we are giving feedback, judging, or criticizing or we are receiving feedback, being judged or being criticized. In order to achieve you full growth potential, you must find opportunities to both give and receive feedback or criticism. Giving feedback comes naturally; doing the thing that will place you at the receiving end, that is, going first doesn’t come naturally. Many of us work to avoid that.

I was with a friend who was browsing through the ‘Letters to the Editor’ section of a local newspaper. As he read, he paused and commented on ‘how bad written English has become these days’ and that he couldn’t believe people ‘would send things like these to be published’.

I asked my friend the last he had anything published in a newspaper, a blog, a wiki page etc. His answer? Never. I said to him “imagine a society in which nobody wanted to comment on issues happening around them because they thought another ‘expert’ would criticize their language proficiency”.  “ I’m not criticizing, I’m only giving an honest feedback”, he responded. Great, an honest feedback indeed.

As you read this post, you may have some great thoughts on issues about health, current affairs, your local economy, education, entertainments and sports.  You could put these thoughts together and send it to your local newspaper. You can also look for all the grammatical errors, the punctuation omissions and spelling inconsistencies in my post. ‘Give an honest feedback’. At the end of the day, I’m making things happen, you’re not.

Check this at work: the guys who rise fast, are recognized and never skipped over for promotion are the guys who go first and get all the feedback and criticisms. In most cases, they are not the guys who give the feedback and criticisms.

So go out there and be a starter. As you watch the preacher, the singer on television, the Sunday school teacher, the blogger, the player, the community volunteer,  know that you too can be the originator of something. It is good to give feedback, but it’s even greater to receive feedback.

Always remember that if you are capable of judging, then you are much more capable of initiating and ‘architecturing’ stuff. You can! Go and start something.