I think this is a valid question everyone needs to think about. I for one, tell it how it is. I think in the end it’s a good thing. However, I bring this question up because of a few recent situations at work and in life.

Being a recruiter, you talk with multiple people on a daily basis, you interview people on a weekly basis, and you hire people monthly more than likely. All of these situations require you to give feedback. Now whatever kind of feedback you give, that’s up to you. Sugar coat it, make the negative into a positive, etc. But, in all of the above situations, feedback helps these people. Yes, whether it’s great feedback or crap, it’s information that candidates and employees can use to better themselves professionally and personally. Do you tell a candidate that failed an interview miserably because he/she chewed gum and talked too much? Absolutely! Do you tell an employee that he/she is pissing off the client because he/she is cursing frequently? Absolutely! Now I know there are “HR” rules to comply by here, especially in a corporate setting. But, if nobody tells these people what they’re doing wrong, how can they get better?

On the flip side, I’ve had potential candidates get angry with me because of some negative feedback I’ve given out. I ran into this study recently, Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments. I found it interesting, and accurate at the same time. The most humble people in my mind, have almost always underestimated their knowledge, taken any kind of criticism, and possessed those true “consulting skills”. And the arrogant, well read the study. There’s always a fine line, because I’ve dealt with many extremely smart employees that had large egos and consistently delivered. But, in all cases I’ve dealt with, by far the most valuable employees were the ones that had very little egos and were always eager to hear what they could improve on.

I know of a bunch of IT consultants that tell it how it is. They’re great, they deliver, and most projects they’re involved with are successful. But, everyone on their projects complains about them. “They’re too brash”, “they’re control freaks”, etc. There are better ways to, as I said, “sugar coat” things, but why? People are scared of their deficiencies, and when someone points them out (to improve them), they turn against you. So it brings me to my conclusion, we all need to accept criticism from our peers and find a way to turn these negatives into positives. I’m definitely not humble and it’s always been tough for me to accept criticism, but I’ve learned to find positives in whatever junk gets thrown my way.

Love me or hate me, I’m who I am, and I’m ultimately trying to help you when I give out feedback.

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This entry was posted by Ehren Seim on Monday, June 1st, 2009 at 12:23 pm and is filed under HR, Job Search, Recruiting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.