Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Without Exception
Here's a page from my business book for artists; I wrote it last night. What do you think?

In management theory there’s a big no-no called “management by exception.” While you might not know what the phrase means, you’ve certainly encountered the concept. Picture yourself…

 In a classroom. Your t-shirt is moist and your fingers snap a little too often. Last week you handed in your best self-portrait yet and are awaiting its safe return. “Here you go” your teacher mutters and drops the piece on your desk, face-up. A bold, red “95%” reflects your relieved smile. You snatch the drawing with both hands and start to scan. “Elbows too skinny,” “eyes too wide,” “proportions off,” “lips generic,” and so on. Despite the fact you received an almost perfect grade, there’s not a single word of positive feedback.

 In a work environment. You’re thrilled when a new client calls you on referral and agrees to your commission terms without delay… The project starts off well enough, but stalls after the client keeps changing his mind. “I don’t know what I like, but I do know what I don’t like” he’d often say. Four weeks pass. You finally finish and the client is happy with the piece. Do they compliment you? No: “What took you so long?”

 With your significant other. Your significant other loves you, and it’s for a good reason. You perform 90% of your relationship duties with diligence, wit, and flair. Why is it then that 90% of his or her time is spent nagging you on the couple things you do poorly?

When someone is in a position of influence over someone else, there’s a tendency to want to institute change. Change by itself is fine, as long as it’s kept in perspective. The more you focus on negative things in another person, the more nitpicks you’ll find. Soon you’ll completely ignore all the person’s positive traits and will freak out at the smallest grievance.

Here’s a golden rule: If the recipient is performing 90% of their duties well, then 90% of the feedback and focus should be positive!

There’s nothing better than positive feedback. The recipient feels exhilarated afterward, they’re more receptive to constructive feedback, and they’ll keep doing what they’re doing. Negative feedback on the other hand, tends to aggravate people and it hardly ever works in the long-run. Most importantly, negative feedback never helps to build relationships.

You should strive to manage others without exception. More importantly, you should strive to manage yourself without exception. How many times do you kill yourself over one failure in a sea of successes?
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