Excellence in a World Where Sensitivity Wins

Think about the best work you’ve ever done. Was it creating a new product, marketing plan or brand strategy? Was it closing your biggest sale or landing the promotion after years of sweat equity? Most likely the best work you’ve ever done didn’t happen on a day when ‘not much was going on’, where you had time to take it slow and ‘dot all your I’s’. It’s more probable that your best work was done on a day when the stakes were high, the deadline was impending and you were fighting off negative feedback at every turn. 

 It seems like lately our workplaces are getting ‘nicer’ –– Thank God. In the wake of sexual misconduct surfacing in the workplace, it’s critical that we take a hard look at the work environments we create and take steps to ensure they are safe and productive for everyone. But, a safe and productive work environment is not the same thing as a ‘sugar-coated’ work environment. In our efforts to create an environment that’s more positive, we can’t neglect to give honest, sometimes not-fun-to-hear feedback. Once we begin tiptoeing around people that we don’t want to confront with direct, productive criticism, we begin compromising the excellence of our work as a whole. We’re not looking for ‘good, but could be better’ –– we’re looking for excellence. 

 Excellent work outcomes and a progressive edge come from work environments that are not only safe and encouraging, but also champion honest, candid feedback.