It’s getting that time of the year when companies are planning their salary budgets, bonus programs, and maybe even performance appraisals and development plans. Usually any of these will necessitate a conversation with your manager about how you are doing at your job. I don’t know about you, but these aren’t the conversations I looked forward to having because no matter how well I was doing at my job, I could expect some constructive and critical feedback on how to get better. After many years of angst I finally figured out that the only reason I was reticent to receiving feedback was that I was letting my ego get in the way of listening to what others had to say, and what they had to say was more than likely grounded in wanting to improve me. I should have welcomed that feedback. We all should. It really is the only way that we will get better and improve ourselves. Without real, honest, targeted, and observable feedback we could find ourselves not growing. Not developing, improving and growing is way worse than taking in feedback, processing it and putting what we take from it to work. Proverbs 19:20 tells us to “Listen to counsel and receive instructions, that you may be wise in your latter days.” I like this verse a lot as it not only encourages us to listen and be open to receiving instruction from others it provides a promise that if we do so then we will gain wisdom and that wisdom will show up in our latter years. And as we grow in our professional careers we need all the wisdom we can get. So, next time your boss says, “I have some feedback for you”, or, “it is time to receive your performance appraisal”, or to receive 360 degree feedback from your peers, take a deep breath and approach this time with optimism and enthusiasm taking it as a learning opportunity for you to grow and develop. Think of it as an deposit in your wisdom bank for the future.
Author Archives: Rusty Rueff
About Rusty Rueff
Rusty Rueff, author of purposed worKING. Rusty Rueff is the former Chairman Emeritus of The GRAMMY Foundation in Los Angeles. He most recently completed the successful 16 month leadership role as Coordinating National Co-Chair for Technology for Obama (T4O) for the reelection of President Obama and ten-years of Board service and President of the Board of Trustees of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Corporately, most recently Rueff was the Chief Executive Officer at SNOCAP, Inc. until the acquisition of the company by imeem, Inc. in April 2008. Before joining SNOCAP in 2005, he was Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Electronic Arts (EA) from 1998 until 2005. He was also with the PepsiCo companies for more than ten years, with the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies for two years, and in commercial radio as an on-air personality for six years. Rusty holds an M.S. in counseling and a B.A. in radio and television from Purdue University. In 2003 he was named a distinguished Purdue alumnus, and he and his wife, Patti, are the named benefactors of Purdue’s Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts. He is a corporate director of Glassdoor.com and runcoach. He is the co-founder and Executive Committee Member of T4A.org, serves on the Founding Circle of The Centrist Project and a founding Board Member of The GRAMMY Music Education Coalition. He is also the co-author of the book Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business. Rusty and his wife, Patti, reside in Hillsborough, CA and Charlestown, R.I.