[2022-07-18] Know yourself deeply
Less than 10 years into my Public Service career, I became an acting director. One of my responsibilities was to review the performance appraisals of employees who reported to my managers. In my first year in the role, I simply signed the appraisals for the employees of one particular manager—a team with whom I had had limited interaction—without adding any comments. The manager of that team was furious with me, saying, "These employees work for you all year. The least you can do is to say something nice in their annual appraisals."
His criticism was a stinging rebuke. I might have justified my actions by telling myself that I was new to the organization and didn't yet know what every employee in the 70-person division did. But I didn't. My manager had made a valid observation; I could do better. As Maya Angelou said, "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better."
I took his message to heart, and never again merely signed an appraisal without adding a personal comment to thank employees for their contribution to the organization. In fact, this incident taught me the importance people place on positive feedback from their boss's bosses.
For the rest of my career, I made a point of putting personal notes on anything that I knew would make its way to an employee, such as letters of offer. Employees would tell me how much it meant to them to receive a letter of offer with a handwritten note from me saying "I'm thrilled that you will be joining our team" along with a happy face.
I remembered that learning moment recently when I came across notes from a panel discussion about career advancement. One of the most interesting pieces of advice was this one: "Know yourself deeply: be ready to change; listen to feedback from others about you and act on it."
Too often, we miss the subtle—and sometimes not so subtle—advice from bosses, colleagues, subordinates and clients on how to improve our performance. The more open we are to feedback, the more we can learn and the more we can improve.
Years ago, I modified a line that Dr. Phil used frequently on his show—"people who have nothing to hide hide nothing"—and turned it into "people who have nothing to learn learn nothing." In other words, if you think you have nothing to learn, you're right: you will learn nothing.
Instead, listen to feedback, ask yourself what you can do differently in future, and take steps to improve. Know yourself deeply.
