Correct people privately, and not in the heat of the moment. Good timing turns criticism into help.
STILLNESS
WHAT THIS MEANS
An audience changes what a correction is. The same sentence delivered in front of other people asks the person to manage their embarrassment rather than the information, so very little gets through and something else takes damage. Taken aside afterwards, those identical words arrive as help from somebody on their side.
Hold any correction you have this week until you can say it to the person alone, and until the temperature has dropped. Lead with what you want them to be able to do rather than with what went wrong. If it was only ever going to feel good said publicly, it was not a correction.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
Who could you correct privately and later instead of now?
MORE IN PATIENCE & TIMING
- You can’t speed up a kid learning to walk. You can only make it safer to fall. Same for anyone learning.
- Slow progress feels a lot like being stuck. The difference only shows when you look back far enough.
- Waiting rooms are where your thoughts get loud. Let them. You don’t have to drown them out every time.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.