Saturday, December 27, 2008

Seek Feedback!

Many a times we deliver a lecture, a presentation or even just a public speech but never try to rate it. We never try to find out whether we were good, bad or worse, what the positive points were and what the negative points were. Even if we do it is not sure that we would get any genuine feedback especially if the seeker is the boss or superior of the person seek. But seeking feedback is one of the most important things to do if you want to improve. In electrical engineering, feedback loops are often used to keep the system under control and to make it robust. So should it be in the real world. Any time there is a possibility to seek the feedback it is best to seek. At the same time give the most genuine feedback to those who seek it. (You may have to make a disclaimer about the frankness :) ).
Samuel Johnson once said "Advice is seldom welcome. Those who need it most like it least." The same is true with feedback too. We would rather be happy with false praise than be rescued with true feedback. We should try to come out of this mentality and seek feedback so that we improve ourselves.
Seek feedback about your positive points, your negative points and seek feedback on how you can improve yourselves. Listen to everyone around, make a list on what they suggest, analyze them and make a plan for yourself to improve. You would be happy that you did so.
I seek genuine feedback on how this article went. I am sure I would get more negative points than positive, but I hope to improve myself in the coming ones. I followed "Write drunk, edit sober" formula. Hope I would get back and edit this sometime.

No comments: