Entries from May 2008 ↓

The Center for Progressive Leadership Action Network has launched a great tool listing progressive training opportunities.

You can view a map with 2008 training opportunities, or view a calendar of all the opportunities nation-wide.

There are a few bugs to work out, a lot of the opportunities are already out-of-date, for example,  but it’s a great resource nonetheless.

“Overall we’re very satisfied with your work…”

Even when this statement is true, it sounds hollow and vague.

But the critiques that follow it are always specific, and often painful to hear.

I know, I often use variations of this line myself.

But when it’s used on me, I realize how it comes off as an empty platitude.

How should you respond?

One way is to avoid giving criticism or corrective feedback. There are some who advocate this path. They say you’ll get farther with only praise than you ever would with only criticism.

If you look through my blog posts, you’ll see I’m far too opinionated for that approach to work for me.

There is another alternative, though. You can make your praise just as specific as your criticism.

Instead of saying “you did a good job chairing that meeting (followed by the inevitable “but…”),” you can say, “I thought you did an excellent job giving the group time for informal discussion and then gently bringing us back on topic.”

Yes, it takes more thought to pick out specific examples of what to praise, but it’s much more meaningful for the person who hears it.

And if we want their continued support, we owe them this extra work.

And we especially owe it to them if we’re going to offer corrective feedback.

Last year ICPJ organized a bus trip to the SOA Watch vigil at Ft. Benning, GA.

After loading up, we got on the bus and on the highway. Our driver handled the bus well and drove safely, both of which are key marks for someone you want behind the wheel.

There was just one problem.

He went the wrong way. He drove west on I-94 instead of east.

I’ve been thinking about this as we prepare for staff evaluations. In all humility, I think I’m pretty good at what I do. And my past evaluations have supported that: I’ve gotten good ratings from our members and volunteers.

But just because I run a good meeting or produce a good newsletter doesn’t mean that we as an organization is moving in the right direction.

Yes, we need to make sure that I’m a good driver, but we also need to make sure that we as a community are going the right way.