Striving towards Excellence

-Karthik Gurumurthy

I recently witnessed an associate exhibiting a poor performance. I remember thinking how difficult it would be to give him honest feedback on his performance but was instantly comforted by the fact that based on what I knew about him, he would never ask. He would prefer to either blame or rationalize his shortcomings or just choose to believe he had done well.

Asking for feedback helps people become leaders. It also enables them to stay effective leaders.

I have often felt that if you do not want to know, do not ask. If you are a leader, you will want to know. That doesn’t mean you will adjust to every bit of feedback you receive as if it were profound truth. Feedback is usually mixed with opinion and personal preference. But enough feedback from  credible sources (who has fruit on the tree) will provide valuable information you can use to improve your performance.

Leaders ask because they want to know how they are doing and how to keep doing better.