Essential Skills: Learning from Mistakes and Accepting Criticism
Mistakes get a bad rap. Experience may be a rough teacher, but you tend not to forget the lessons. You have probably heard “If you are not making mistakes, you are not trying hard enough.” Painfully true.
When we make a mistake, we are taught to apologize. Good advice. If we are not smart enough to admit our mistakes and apologize for them, we implicitly explain their origin all too clearly. But simply apologizing for mistakes under-values their worth. The reason experience is valued as a life coach is precisely due to our propensity to err. To screw up is human. If mistakes are such a fundamental part of the human experience, it makes sense to embrace them with resignation if not enthusiasm. |
The truth is, you want to avoid mistakes whenever possible. Understand too, however, your very ability to recognize a mistake when it occurs is a positive sign. If you have a commitment to being good at what you do, then anything less is simply not acceptable. Mistakes are not the most desirable of instructors, but they often teach lessons better than successes.
There is an even better reason to embrace mistakes, to recognize and incorporate their inevitable incarnations in your travel practice. If you are willing to make room for mistakes in your life, you are indicating your willingness to explore unfamiliar terrain. It is all too easy to stay in a very safe place and never encounter the opportunity for error. You will never ask for the business from a new customer, never speak in front of a new group of prospectives, never venture beyond a few friends, family and a few individuals who strayed into your path as clients. If you are willing to take a chance, to fall on your face, to take the risk that prospectively looks outsized, then your business will grow.
Mistakes are inevitable and nearly as important as your successes to the growth of your practice. Perhaps it is too much to ask you to celebrate your mistakes, but at least give them their due as teachers and fear them less than the horrors of stasis.
Accepting Criticism
There is an even better reason to embrace mistakes, to recognize and incorporate their inevitable incarnations in your travel practice. If you are willing to make room for mistakes in your life, you are indicating your willingness to explore unfamiliar terrain. It is all too easy to stay in a very safe place and never encounter the opportunity for error. You will never ask for the business from a new customer, never speak in front of a new group of prospectives, never venture beyond a few friends, family and a few individuals who strayed into your path as clients. If you are willing to take a chance, to fall on your face, to take the risk that prospectively looks outsized, then your business will grow.
Mistakes are inevitable and nearly as important as your successes to the growth of your practice. Perhaps it is too much to ask you to celebrate your mistakes, but at least give them their due as teachers and fear them less than the horrors of stasis.
Accepting Criticism
Even at its best, when presented with tact and grace, criticism can be hard to take. When phrased as a complaint, criticism can be even tougher to endure. There is no doubt we have fostered a culture of complaint in our economic, political, and social system. We have even trained people to complain as a way of getting windfalls in free services and goods. Complain loudly enough and you get your way, we seem to be saying.
You need a response to criticism, one that demonstrates your company’s no-nonsense ethic. Here is a suggestion: The next time you are criticized, say “Thank you.” We sometimes treat criticism as though it is more than feedback. In reality, criticism is just that, no more and no less. True, some excel at presenting their criticism in a less than kind, less than articulate or civil manner. What we don’t want to do, however, is to confuse the message with the messenger. |
Criticism is an opportunity to evaluate how well we are performing in the context of our travel practice. Feedback gives us the opportunity to correct and hone our business practices and to improve our performance. You can only do so if you are willing to react by trying to find some value in the other’s point of view. If our reaction is to immediately defend ourselves or to be angry or deny, we run the risk of missing a real opportunity for improvement.
We can choose our response to criticism. We can attempt to find value in any reaction to our services. You don’t have to roll over and accept criticism. It is enough if you fairly evaluate it. Regardless of your decision, you have listened for the opportunity to improve.
Consider the alternatives. If we fail to properly address criticisms, people will begin to avoid our services, often without letting us know why. The worst possible feedback is silence. The truth is, criticism is often a disguised request to be more prompt, more careful, or more empathetic. When we can see through the criticism to the request, we stand a better chance of not taking matters personally and moving through any conflict to an immediate resolution.
When someone is critical of the experience of dealing with your travel practice, they are requesting a hearing. Your presence in the marketplace indicates your willingness to listen. Providing the opportunity for both positive and negative feedback allows your clients to enjoy a full participation in their relationship with your business.
We can choose our response to criticism. We can attempt to find value in any reaction to our services. You don’t have to roll over and accept criticism. It is enough if you fairly evaluate it. Regardless of your decision, you have listened for the opportunity to improve.
Consider the alternatives. If we fail to properly address criticisms, people will begin to avoid our services, often without letting us know why. The worst possible feedback is silence. The truth is, criticism is often a disguised request to be more prompt, more careful, or more empathetic. When we can see through the criticism to the request, we stand a better chance of not taking matters personally and moving through any conflict to an immediate resolution.
When someone is critical of the experience of dealing with your travel practice, they are requesting a hearing. Your presence in the marketplace indicates your willingness to listen. Providing the opportunity for both positive and negative feedback allows your clients to enjoy a full participation in their relationship with your business.