Delicious!
Goes Down Easy!
Now, with super-fluffy marshmallow compliments!
Eat these and have absolutely zero potential for growth and enrichment!
Yah, so today, I've been thinking a little bit (OK, a lot bit) about giving and receiving feedback. Especially at work. The last couple of weeks, the MBTI (Myers-Briggs for those of you who haven't spent the last 8 years studying psychology) has reared it's ugly little pinhead here at work. We all took the MBTI and are now aware of our team's personality differences, styles, blah blah blah. Group hug, right?
Dead wrong. Now we're all labeling each other, walking on eggshells, and tiptoeing around our own thoughts and feelings. Gross. Growing up in a tumultous family full of conflict (and a bunch of hodge-podge alcoholic genes that make for a no-holds-barred, get it out on the table ruckus every time there was a disagreement), I'm not one for Minnesota nice (funny, I'm even a native.) If I don't like something, if I think that something should be fixed, different, scrapped, or exalted, you're going to know about it. I know, I know -- sometimes that gets me into trouble. But its trouble worth having, because at least everyone knows where they stand at all times, and there's no guessing as to what I'm thinking/feeling/processing.
Well, in that vein, I'm a stranger in a strange land at work. Some of my team, while having many great qualities, is very, well, Hotdish. We don't talk about stuff. We don't acknowledge when people's feelings are hurt, when there's a mistake, when we need to just vent. Bad team. Bad team!
Instead, we feed each other Super-Sugar Feedback Puffs. Say something nice, make yourself look and sound stupid, self-depricate, and above all, play nice. No bruised egos here (you know, except the ones seething under the smile.)
Well, you know what? I'm not sorry about my feelings. I won't write an apology for my thoughts, and I don't think that I should have to tone down my own brain. I'm not rude, I'm not mean. I just say what I think. And sometimes that's really not an easy pill for my fellow Midwestern-ers to swallow (by the way, this is reason #086594 I belong on the East Coast.)
To quote a great songwriter:
... I'm sorry for my views,
I must have been confused
but did you know that really
I'm sorry for you ...
(nellie mckay)
1 comment:
You go girl! The ability to tell us what you are thinking in a clear, constructive, and not hurtful manner is one of the many reasons that I love you!
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