We’ve all heard it, probably from our mothers… “if you can’t say something nice don’t say anything at all.” This statement seems to be haunting me lately. I’ve been analyzing whether or not this statement is true for those of us who blog, or speak in public, or write books.
So here’s my question — if you have a public voice (in any platform) do you live by the rules of if you can’t say something nice OR do you owe it to the public, your audience, someone who could be effected by your comments, to speak the truth? Maybe the answer depends on the situation.
Let’s try a few out to see if you come up with a different answer:
What if you read a book you don’t like? Do you still write a public review which you were planning on doing? What if that book was given to you for free with the intention of reviewing it?
What if you don’t like your job?
What if you like your job but really have an issue with a coworker?
What if that person is your boss? Is the answer different if it’s a previous employer?
What if you are getting married and you don’t like your mother in law to be?
What if your roommate drives you crazy?
How about one of your close friends?
Does this answer change if you know this person does not read your blog?
What about a restaurant? What if you normally like it and have a bad experience?
What about a movie or an actor?
What if a friend has an ill behaved child?
What if someone has a drinking problem? Does you opinion change if that person has children?
Are there different answers depending on the impact of the thing you have an issue with?
Maybe you’d be okay writing a bad review about a restaurant online but won’t write something about people.
Or iPhone apps you dislike are okay to publicize but you chalk-up your dislike for a restaurant as personal taste and don’t publicize this.
Or it’s okay to air your grievances with your soon to be mother in law but not your boss because that could cost you your job (*and perhaps you justify this by saying the MIL doesn’t like you either).
This week, among the many projects and deadlines, we were asked to fill out anonymous peer reviews of select coworkers. Before I knew who I was assigned to review I was very resistant to the idea.
My position in the company is quite unique, in that there are several departments and teams of people and I (kind of) don’t fit in any of them. I am THE marketing department. Ya know… blogger, copy editor, layout person, ad designer, print work orderer, sales message generator… yep all me. So, why would I be reviewing anyone? I don’t directly work with anyone in particular, yet I interact with everyone. I don’t report to one executive (like the rest of the company) as much as I take assignments from each of them. Again my thought was “how can I evaluate anyone else’s job or performance if I don’t really know what it is like to ‘do what they do’ on a day to day basis?”. I could rationalize how one sales person could evaluate another in comparison to themselves. (Have you figured out I’m an extreme analyzer yet?)
I had these conversations with myself for the entire 12 hours in between the time I found out we would be doing this and when I received the list of 5 people I was to review. For some reason, as soon as I receive the list it all become crystal clear to me.
I’ve always had the gift of being able to see someone’s strengths (even when they didn’t always see them). So, this was just an assignment of pointing out what I saw to be an attribute in my peers (and supervisors *scary*) and where I thought they could use a little improvement. I completed the assignment in much less time than it took me to analyze why we were doing it in the first place.
Out of it… came a desire to (in my best 5 year old voice) to ‘do it again!’. AND so I did! Tonight I hopped on LinkedIn and wrote recommendations for 2 coworkers and 2 other people I’ve had the pleasure of working with outside of my “day job”. I had so much fun doing that I think I’ll make this a regular event in my down time. I am blessed to come in contact with many talented people through my job, and the social media club I belong to, and even this blog. It’s inspiring to look at these people through the eyes of “what is great about this person.” I challenge you to try it. Maybe you’re not ready to do it publicly but what would happen if you sent an email to a friend telling them what you appreciate about them? You never know, today might be the day they needed to hear that.
the following guest post was written by Matt Wilson of Under 30 CEO
With the hype of Twitter everyone wants to know–how do I use this tool to successfully grow my business? The answer is public relations. As described by Wikipedia “Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing the flow of information between an organization and its publics.” What better tool to have than a platform where you can send messages out to the publics on behalf of the company?
But I’m a startup, nobody cares about my company
So, let’s start at stage one, it’s time to get press for your startup by forming valuable relationships on Twitter. (more…)
I recently started following Tom Ziglar, son of Zig Ziglar, and I thought his post about job attitudes is certainly worth referencing.
Walking away from the counter I started to think. In this tough economy does any company have to employ somebody with a lousy attitude? I think not! As customers we should be getting the best service of our lives right now. If you work for a company, or own your own, think hard about this – there is a long line of people who would love to have your job or work for you. Don’t settle for adequate competence and a bad attitude.
If you are hunting for a job right now and you have the good fortune of an interview, make sure you focus on both your competence and your attitude (you could even mention this post!), and how you are focused on solving their problems and their customers’ problems.
People are talkin’