In grad school, I took a class on the management style of Machiavelli’s The Prince vs. the management style of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching. I had always been drawn to Eastern philosophies and the words of the Tao spoke my language. I was hooked.
Over the past couple of days, I have had numerous conversations with friends, colleagues, and industry experts, that have caused me to take pause and reevaluate the way I work, the way I interact with people, and my general principles in which I conduct business.
Yesterday, I was called out as being a “complainer” and I wondered if that was true, and if I was really adding any value to my industry or if my opinions even mattered at all. And then I thought, I left my first job out of college because the company I worked for was full of corporate clones, they all spoke the same language, they all nodded in unison when the big guy talked.
I don’t want to be right all the time. I don’t want to be surrounded by people who agree with everything I say or do. I want to be challenged, if I’m always right, then how can I ever progress past the current state that I am in?
In Chapter 61 of the Tao, Lao Tzu says “The Master considers those who point out his faults as his most benevolent teachers.” If we aren’t open to feedback, to criticism, and to ideas that differ from our own, we will never grow, we will never learn.
You may be asking yourself at this point “great, so how does this relate to web analytics and site optimization?” Glad you asked. In our role as analysts, we often challenge and are challenged based on the facts that we present. The great analysts know that they will never make everyone happy and it’s not about being a “complainer” or being “negative” or being a “cynic”, it’s about being critical and questioning, questioning, questioning.
So, regardless of the role you are in, marketeer, product manager, web analyst, site optimizer, or CEO, if you want to create something great, be open to feedback (both positive and negative), if you want to be mired in mediocrity, surround yourself by people who readily agree with you, people who never push you to improve, people who never challenge you to transcend your limits.
“To think for yourself you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable, open-mindedness; chaotic, confused, vulnerability to inform yourself.“
~James Maynard Keenan
Avinash Kaushik
Crepuscular Light
Kevin Rogers
Pritesh Patel
Rudi Shumpert
3 Comments
Jason,
Nice post. The world is full of plenty of people that are not willing to be honest about things and not willing to speak up and be honest about products or people, especially if their name is attached to it. But you’re right, in this space especially it is about asking the tough questions and maybe saying things that to some may come across as negative. Our buddy Ben does a great job of listening to all the feedback good and bad and working to make the customers happy.
I say be honest! If folks can’t handle it or do not like to hear bad things about their product or company…make a better product.
-Rudi
Thanks Rudi. I think you are right. At the end of the day, if you are honest then everything else takes care of itself.
And YES, Ben is doing an amazing job at Omniture. He really is the model for how someone in that position should be, if companies aren’t taking notice then they are missing out. I know he has single handedly changed the opinion I have of Omniture support.
Thanks again for the comment and for stopping by.
By the way. I’ve read both of the books you mentioned in the post. Great books. I’m sure you’ve also read Sun Tzu’s, The Art Of War, and I think it would fit into this conversation as well.
-Rudi