The Importance of Making Mistakes and Getting Feedback
Feedback is a part of life. No matter what an individual's position: spouse, parent, CEO, front-line employee or even President of the United States, feedback comes from all directions.
Feedback is offered by employees, partners, boards of directors and constituents. Feedback is unavoidable. But it's a person's reaction to constructive criticism that plays the most important role in success.
Which road will you take? Stock.xchng/Sigurd Decroos
Anna P. Hemingway, author of How Students' Gratitude for Feedback Can Identify the Right Attitude for Success: Disciplined Optimism, says she can typically place students into two categories:
- Those who thrive on feedback, ask questions and are engaged in improving their work
- Those who are ambivalent, resistant to feedback and ignore criticism
Hemingway says the latter group has "disciplined optimism," or a drive for success based on a desire to learn from mistakes, seek help with challenges, and make improvements to their work.
These same principles can be applied to the workforce, including management and executive staff. A positive response to criticism, even a thirst for suggestions and advice, is a sure sign of an employee or supervisor with a determination to succeed.
Response to Criticism Shapes Success
Feedback is sometimes negative. But it's our response to criticism that shapes the behaviors and attitudes that set the stage for future successes or failures. Hemingway writes that in order to adopt a more positive attitude toward feedback, an individual must:
- View criticisms as an opportunity to grow
- Be devoted to improving the current situation
- Own his own problems
- Believe in his ability to succeed
- Strive to remove obstacles
When offering constructive criticism, include both strengths and weaknesses to help them see negative remarks as an effort to help, instead of an attack. Using this tactic, managers can engage previously ambivalent staff and encourage modifications to work that might otherwise have been resisted.
A Helpless Cause or a Lack of Motivation?
Hemingway suggests that the driving force behind a negative reaction to criticism is often not a desire to fail, but a self-limiting belief that the person can't change their current circumstances. An employee, for example, may believe his talents are limited, leading to the conclusion that making an effort to overcome shortcomings is pointless.
A recent article on PsychologyToday.com takes a look at obtaining success through failure. Author Robert Biswas-Diener points to research that shows "business leaders reported a better tendency to take action, even in the face of fear and uncertainty, than did any other group in the study."
Biswas-Diener says that in his own research, including interviews with dozens of executives, he found that highly-successful people are more willing to make mistakes. Mistakes, it turns out, are opportunities for growth and development.
Biswas-Diener asserts that recognizing the inevitability of mistakes may not be enough; individuals should actually embrace them. In one example, study participants were asked to intentionally make a mistake in a public speaking presentation, incorporating it into the presentation. This group reported having more fun doing what is otherwise a daunting and intimidating task for many: Speaking in public, and making a mistake while doing so.
Take Calculated Risks for a Big Payoff
Many companies are now embracing the nature of mistakes and failure, accepting mistakes as a character trait of highly creative people. It's the individuals with a desire to step outside of the box and take a risk who often come up with the biggest and most profitable ideas. But if a fear of making a mistake holds someone back, the door to opportunity closes.
Of course, a mistake-free enterprise would be an incredible accomplishment, but it would also be a very stale and static environment. A total avoidance of mistakes means no innovation is occurring and no opportunities for learning and growth are taking place.
Without mistakes and errors, we have a harder time identifying areas of improvement, or ways to have the experience help everyone get better. Those who are willing to take risks, willing to accept feedback and willing to move past obstacles are those who will achieve the highest level of success.
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