I have recently had to learn another lesson, and again the learning is about me not being able to suppress my ego. I had decided to visit another speaking club – a neighbouring one – and enthusiastically participated in the activities of the night. Impromptu speeches, short contributions, brainstorming exercises and so on.
At one point I was asked to give an evaluation to the group of another speaker’s efforts. I know that providing feedback in this instance is all about being positive about the speaker and couching a simple area of improvement either side of a whole lot of really good things that the speaker did. Unfortunately I used this opportunity to provide feedback beyond my charter and gave the whole audience some gratuitous advice about the conduct of the meeting and how things could be improved – way beyond what I had been asked to do.
How arrogant. I thought I could add value to the friendly club with my experience and knowledge, but really that wasn’t the right time or place to be doing that. Fortunately, a far more quality person than me gave me the feedback that what I said might be appropriate, but the timing of the comments could have been better served in a different place. Thanks for that.
I really need to learn to keep my ego in check at all times. When will I learn?