"Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations." - Steve Jobs
Maybe you experienced one time in your life saying"If only my boss would let me decide in my work, the company would be more productive." Or are you the kind of person who is afraid of deciding on your own? You may have also experienced in your life of being afraid to make a mistake. Why is it that sometimes we are afraid to decide?
Most people really love to give advises. A lot are not aware that some people hate receiving unsolicited advises. I know some people who do not have the confidence in deciding for themselves. It's as if they are scared of being accountable of their decisions. They are scared of being blamed, screwing things, getting fired or getting scold. While these things are normal, the problem is they may have undesirable consequences if an individual develops more hesitancy and accumulate fear of failure. The worst is people develop self-doubt and lose confidence.
The reasons above make me feel that we need to be aware of our contributions in developing self-doubt to the people around us. Here are a few guidelines that I follow:
1. Ask and listen instead of giving unsolicited advise - When somebody asks me for advise, I first ask them what is the most important thing to them. I'm very cautious right now in giving advises. My experience is people get to be too dependent when you give them advises and solutions always. I prefer in helping them find the solution that they want to do and they confidently feel would work for them.
2. Only work with the willing - Most especially if you do not have a lot of experience in leading and managing people. We love to change people. You can save yourself heartaches if you only work with the willing.
3. Delegate decision making - To delegate tasks is necessary. But be sure to have people that you will be delegating decision making. You will burn yourself out if you do not upgrade yourself in delegating decision making. It's easier to have partners that can decide than partners that will remain followers forever.
The guidelines above is not for everybody though. There are prerequisites before they become authentic and efficient. The prerequisite is experiencing that doing the opposite of those guidelines is less efficient. When a person have not yet experienced that, he will not understand the importance of the above guidelines. If you haven't yet experienced this inefficiency, don't worry. Being aware about this is already a great leap. Just be sure to notice this in your surrounding and try something. Do not try this if making a mistake has too much at stake. Only make small mistakes first. So only develop experience with easy tasks. Aim high, but start small.
If you are not very confident with yourself as of the moment especially if you do not have experience, always have a buddy. The important thing is take action.
Ludwig
Photo by Valine Villanueva
No comments:
Post a Comment