If you criticize the plan, offer to help with the next version. Critics who help become leaders.
LEADERSHIP
WHAT THIS MEANS
There is a short distance between being the person who sees what is wrong and being the person trusted to fix it, and it gets crossed by volunteering. Criticism on its own puts you outside the work, where you are easy to ignore. Volunteering for a piece of the rewrite puts you inside it, which is where the decisions happen.
Next time you say the plan has a hole in it, finish the sentence by offering to take a piece. Even a small piece counts. Do that twice and you will be in the room when the plan gets written.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
What have you criticized without offering to help fix it?
MORE IN LEADERSHIP & INFLUENCE
- If someone’s always late, ask why before you write them up. Sometimes it’s a bus schedule, not an attitude.
- Your friends copy what you do way more than what you say. That’s influence whether you want it or not.
- Feedback that shows up a month late is just a history lesson. Say it while it can still help.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.