Our concept of our self may, at times, prevent us from accepting feedback that works against it. We may form mental images of ourselves that may, over a period of time, drive us away from reality. We may thus experience dissonance when we receive negative feedback from our work or home or from the social environment at large. Businesses can get arrogant and forget the basic fact that a business is a business only because there is a customer.
We may wonder what kind of a sequence of thoughts or events take place before this non-acceptance of negative feedback or arrogance creeps in to our system of thoughts and behaviour. I was scratching my head over them and here are my thoughts:
Failure is built in to success: Success can be a real enemy. Success can cause blindness and complacency. The euphoria accompanying success can create an impenetrable wall that can block all the synapses through which we connect to the world and experience reality. The ability to challenge oneself, introspection and humility are the only antidotes to this trap.
Pride comes before a fall: As clichéd as this proverb may sound – it rings true. Pride is the culmination of our self concept of infallibility. The inflated sense of our accomplishments blocks our ability to accept negative feedback.
So how is negative feedback nourishing? Well, this depends on our ability to generate action as a result of the feedback. We have to differentiate the roles that we play in our lives with what we are as a person. This crucial separation is what may be required so that we may not gather rust. The basis of this crucial separation comes from our language and daily communication.
Copyright – Nitesh Kotecha
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