Being Defensive !?
During, I believe, the 3rd year of my bachelors. I commented to one of my Friend (I am sure He will remember that) , that the common thing about Sahara is, we never agreed that we are wrong. We will give some reason or the other to prove that the point we were making is right. I still stand by it !!
When I entered into the professional world, and on my first project itself. We were having our first review meeting. We were 3 people fresh out of college trying to explain some very senior people in our company, about what we are gonna do. The meeting took up the full second half of the day. At the end of the meeting, we got a feedback that we are too defensive.
And as time has passed on, I have realized that they were right. We are still too defensive. It is hard to admit that one is wrong. It takes great courage to admit that one is wrong. It takes even greater courage to admit your fault, take responsibility of the mess one has created and then sit down to make things in order. Few weeks back, I was surrounded with Japanese people. And there I saw, people admitting there mistakes in the open, in front of everybody, taking the blame and sitting down to mend things back into working. And this one of the reasons I admire the Japanese way of working. No wonder they are where they are, given that the limited resources they have been given.
I take feedback, very often. But I on the feedback, I justify myself on why I do things the way I do. Instead of understanding my faults, I explain why it is right for me to make those mistakes. Excuses galore, I have never set out to make things right.
I think it is time for all of us to realize, that every one is right in their own eyes. What matters, is to be right in the eyes of the majority !!
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