Mid-year evaluations are coming up. It's always difficult to do these activities well. It isn't easy to accept criticism, no matter how well-intentioned.
We view a fair amount of reality television in my household. One perennial favorite is "Survivor." On this particular season, there is a gentleman who believes he is running the show but may in fact be fooling only himself. There is another player on his tribe who secretly despises him while the other members of his alliance tolerate him as much for his vote as anything else. They sum up one of his problems by saying that he sees all of his positives and none of his negatives.
I thought about that for quite some time. It rang true. He helped the tribe win a challenge through his dogged determination and strength. This led him to believe that he would always be the strongest member who would take the brunt of the focus. Unfortunately for him, it led directly to a major failure in the tribe's next challenge as his overconfidence led him to convince the tribe to follow a strategy doomed to failure. Despite this poor result, he still explained away his poor performance by blaming other factors and refused to move off of his original ideas!
One major problem with only hearing the positives about ourselves is the lack of growth. Without knowing what we need to improve, we may be blindsided by the propensity for those negative traits to pop up at the most inopportune moments. As long as the critiques are based in objective evidence, we ought to be able to give them a fair hearing in the hopes that it can help us improve.
I just hope that I take the same attitude when I get to see my own review....
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