In the course of reviewing criticism and how I receive it, I offer an alternative method: that practiced by my Sensei.
I have trained with my Sensei for 13 years this July. Iaijutsu is the only martial art I have truly studied and at that, I came to it in my mid-forties. I did not have a background in it (or really at the time, any physical training). In this sense, my Sensei has essentially overseen my entire martial arts development, as slow and painful as it has often seemed.
It is not Sensei's way to criticize. Sensei's way to remind.
As senior student of the dojo, I am sempai (which translates as "senior member", simply meaning a classmate, coworker, or other associate that has preceded one in the job, school, practice, or art). As such, his expectations of me are higher than any other student in the class (as they should be). As a result, I am reminded with greater frequency about smaller levels of detail that I need to attend to. These have change over the years, of course: for many years it was working on level shoulders. Now it is working on overall posture (a straight back) as well as more precise blade placement.
Sensei has two goals. The first - one he practices himself - is to work so that when I go to training in Japan (hopefully next year!), I will not receive the same corrections as I received last time. The second is that I am indirectly a reflection of him. To the extent I overcome my current challenges, it reflects well on him (just as if I do not correct them, it reflects poorly on him).
Here is the difference: Sensei reminds me. Over the past year, I have had more "Back!" reminders than I care to think about (I have merited them). Yet perhaps strangely, I do not resent them even though they are frequent (and very often, the same thing) because I understand what Sensei is ultimately after - and in turn, I want to reflect well on Sensei.
This is the best sort of criticism, the sort that improves one but also makes one eager to improve. Why this is not a more prevalent practice, I do not know. Well, perhaps I do know: it takes a great deal of patience and time to make corrections this way.
But are true corrections the point of constructive criticism? And if so, why not do the best we can to ensure its success.
I am hopeful that this year, as we approach 14 years of Iaijutsu, I can report that my back is no longer a constant reminder (my guess is my depth of stance will be, but we will see). In that sense, the criticism administered will have truly accomplished its purpose, not have bounced off unused and unwanted.
I like this. My take, then, is that what Sensei is offering is guidance, as opposed to criticism. There's obviously a standard being worked toward, but the goal is human focused, and strives to encourage both you and your teacher to be best you can in the art and skill of Iaijutsu. In business, on the other hand, the goal is the company's perceived notion of success, of which humans are either assets or liabilities, but sadly, not persons.
ReplyDeleteOf course, you have to live in both worlds for now, and that's a challenge in itself.
Guidance is a very good term for it Leigh. And admittedly we are training in something with seemingly little practical value, it actual carries fare more import in my life than my career in terms of overall impact (except for a salary, of course).
DeleteAnd I would agree - ultimately business view employees as just another resource. Perhaps to be well cared for and pampered like a race horse treated like a disposable object, but a resource. I long ago learned that a company will take 100% of your effort and then let you go when it suits them. In that sense, my loyalty is to my immediate supervisors and fellow employees, not the business.
Good luck on travel plans next year Tb, hope things calm down for that. Reading this post I'm thinking; self-discipline.......but what do I know? I was impressed with the Jimmy Caan School of " Shoulders Back!" decades ago.
ReplyDeleteI really hope so Nylon12. It will be good to see the head of our order and the students from all of the world that I have only interacted with on social media for the last three years.
DeleteYou are quite right. It is a lot of self discpline, and learning physical cues (like how my back feels when I am in the correct position).
This is why I questioned you yesterday TB. When you manage people, and do performance reviews - the list of critiques are only half the job.
ReplyDeleteYour instructor offers correction. He follows up and watches your efforts to his corrections. If they don’t work, he will ask himself why. He will work with you to sort it out.
On your job review, were they specific about your shortfalls? Did they explain thoroughly why you fell short? Did they offer specific remedies and work with you to overcome them?
If not… then the review was either meaningless, or worse - it was a hatchet job. Corporate America makes a lot of noise and tells a lot of pretty lies about coaching… but in reality they have no commitment to the concept at all.
We used to recognize the value of promoting from within. We used to train our employees and put the time in to make them better. Now we expect to parachute in new people and expect them to work miracles and make profits the second their feet hit the ground.
The comparison between your instructor and your corporate masters highlights the contrasts. Critique that you can’t act on is useless and accomplishes nothing.
The points of failure - perceived or real - were listed. There was no specific offers of remedies, just a general listing of things that I needed to improve at. Although to be honest with you, at that point the decision had already been made to transition me to another position. I simply agreed to the transition out of a sense of "you cannot fight city hall" and that if I had gone toe to toe with my manager (as if I would ever actually do that), it would change nothing.
DeleteYou are 1000% correct on the observation of bringing in people from the outside instead of promoting from within. It is very short sighted from where I sit, as it informs employees that the only chance they have to move ahead is to seek other opportunities. What, I wonder, does that do to employee morale and enthusiasm?
I like your last line very much: "Critique that you can't act on is useless and accomplishes nothing". It is absolutely true - but I suppose it does accomplish one thing: it lets the person giving the critique feel like that have made their observations and opinions known. Just not in a way that is easily remedied.
Sorry about that TB - Blooger isn't letting me use my name on some blogs. I have to manually sign off on them and I usually forget...
DeleteNo worries Glen! I have the same problem!
DeleteI found you not too long ago; thank you for your writing. Your relationship with your Sensei reminds me of the relationship between a rabbi and his students in that they are to learn from and model their lives on that of their teacher. In my case, the rabbi is Yeshua, and while His standards are very high, His reminders are many and gentle.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the compliment and for coming along!
DeleteThat is very much the model; in fact, the idea behind our school is not only to follow technique, but moral teaching. And it does, indeed, remind me of a certain Jewish Rabbi (although to be fair, I never made that connection before - so thank you for that!).
Regarding "Critique that you can't act on is useless and accomplishes nothing"
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a new hire at the "current" job, I was at a bit of a loss to know what was important. I mean, I knew the job and had no issue at all learning what else I needed to do technically. But they monitored all sorts of metrics in our work: Time to target, miles driven, time on site, resolution in one visit or more, time from opening the work ticket to resolution to close of the ticket. It was weirdly obscure to me, and confusing. You could fix something and still get a poke in the eye. So I asked the boss, "What is my job here?" And he said, "Make me look good." That was it! The Golden Quote. He defined what was important to him, as long as I did that, he had my back.
I was really lucky that I hired on when no one was available to train me. I became his secretary for six weeks until work slowed down to semi-normal. In that amount of time, I got 5 years of experience in the metrics that mattered and what was noise. I pulled reports for him, streamlined his Excel spreadsheets (he went to the same data source for four different charts. I just made page one the input, then it spit out the four different charts from one data dump. Saved 80% of his time on that task. Got a bonus for that before I'd worked there two months, 1997, we were pulling data off greenbar paper, mainframe system, nothing like today.)
Long story, short: It is in communication with management that we know what is required and what "makes them look good". Sometimes they don't know the answer to that, but will hold you accountable anyway. That got too frustrating for me to endure. I ask now at the end of the one on ones / coaching, "What am I not asking that I should?" That is the brick wall they can't drive through. It has opened up wide vistas for me. Try it, no royalties owed unless it helps you get a 30% raise, then we'll talk... ;)
There are things I'm ignorant of, it's nothing to be ashamed of. Ignorance is like having fleas, it's not bad to have fleas, it's bad to KEEP having fleas. That mindset coupled with "Knock and door shall be opened, seek and you will find, ask..." Gave me the idea to just say it out loud. "What should I ask you that I'm too ignorant to know to ask you?" (Be prepared for awkward silence. I clanked up a CPA with that question once. She blubbered for a long time, then took a breath and told me in 35 years, she had NEVER had that question. I could barely keep up with her after that and I do a decent job of taking notes.)
This is the failure of neoliberal corporate America. Back when I managed people, the priority was to make your customers happy - the ones inside and outside the company. When I got that question, I would have replied to the employee that their job was to replace me when I got promoted or moved up.
DeleteThat is a never ending process too. If I get bumped up, and you get bumped into my old position... again... I would coach you to replace me and would hope my boss would do the same. But I am a rational adult; I realize that one day I will have to retire, and the company had better be able to function when I am gone, and the people I leave behind will be thankful for all that I can do for them.
Mind you, the second a company shows any serious profit or potential, its management sells out, the corporate seagulls move in and take over with the intent of flipping the company the moment it runs into tough times. I hear those guys bemoaning the death of 'the company man', and my response is usually along the lines of, "Then why did you fire him?"
STxAR: Thank you for sharing the story and it does indeed point to a critical factor, that of knowing the market one serves.
DeleteAt the same, time, "Make me look good" is not an absolute. In my case, I had a manager also tell me that. My internal response was "Hmm. Not 'make sure our product meets specification" or "make sure our product serves customers", but "make me look good", In my experience, it is not always an absolute.
That said, communication with management is a must. If I understand the expectations, I can more likely fulfill them.
Glen, I cannot really disagree with anything you have said. In point of fact (once upon a time) I trained you so you could replace me when I moved up or moved on. Not so much now; the expectation is that I will likely leave (if of a certain level) and there is not so much replacement internally as externally. It is a large waste of talent, yet this seems to be the current norm.
DeleteAnd buyouts/takeovers are now mostly done for the intellectual property, not for the people that made it possible.