‘Some of the Best Coaching of My Life’
Logan Mallory, vice president of marketing at Motivosity,
an employee recognition and engagement software company
NEW SERIES: Six Interviews
“The trick to viewing feedback as a gift is to be more worried about having blind spots than hearing about them.”
James Clear
Author of Atomic Habits
Writer and speaker
Logan Mallory
Vice President of Marketing
Motivosity
Unfortunately so many of us are interested in being right more than we are in becoming better. As long as we're not proven wrong, we're just fine staying mediocre, or on par with our current capabilities.
If we have a growth mentality, then we'll be looking for ways to improve. The pain of some course correction will mean less to us than the opportunity of being a better version of ourselves.
Not all feedback is accurate, but we should consider it before we completely reject it.
When you have the self-awareness to know you can't always be right, it opens the door to finding ways to be better. It might help to have a group of trusted mentors where you can get insights from people that have your best interest at heart.
A therapist is a good way to see realities. Exposing yourself to new books, situations, ideas, and people can also help us focus on the right things rather than our ego. Vulnerability, which can mean admitting when we're wrong, is a key to making this happen.
Early in my career a client refused to do business with our company any longer because he felt like I was (like) a used car salesman. His feedback killed me emotionally and I could hardly function at work.
Noticing my slump, my boss pulled me aside and gave me some of the best coaching of my life. He said, “Logan, you're going to be criticized and receive feedback for the rest of your career. You're a responsible enough adult that you can do one of two things: Consider the feedback and if it's accurate, make a change. If it's not accurate, then just keep moving forward.”
He walked me through a handful of questions: “Were you trying to act like a used car salesman? Did you see something in your interactions that could have been interpreted that way? Have any other customers said you treated them poorly?”
The answer to all of those was of course “no,” so I moved on.
But I learned a really powerful lesson: if you don't consider the feedback, you don't have a chance to grow.
