MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED 5: They Like Feedback

‘Feedback is the breakfast of champions’ (Anon.)

Successful people work in closed loops. That is, they operate such that their next input is a function of their last output. An open loop is the direct opposite of this. Take a hunter as an example. If his first shot misses target he adjusts his aim. If he hits target he stops shooting. The information obtained from the last output which affects the next input is what is called feedback.

This is what success-minded people like. Dr. Mike LeBoeuf wrote in ‘The Greatest Management Principle in the World’ that the four most important words in American English are ‘What is your opinion?’ If you think that is not true then you must be a machine or a robot. You can’t ever be the best judge of what you do, observers are. That’s why most corporate bodies hang suggestion boxes in their reception lobbies. Even several authors now ask for feedback.

At times feedback could be cynical or discouraging. Whichever way, make the most of what people say about the things you do. With experience you will discover that most people that make cynical comments about certain things are those that have failed in those things. Or what do you expect a senior that failed a course to tell his junior? It’s either the course is irrelevant or the lecturer is bad!

‘He who can take advice is sometimes superior to him who can give it’ - Karl Ludwig von Knebel