Debriefing your work is important for creating success. Unfortunately, most professionals don’t critique their meetings, presentations or interactions.
Why? Because we have only learned to look for what went wrong. Even if you didn’t get the deal or influence the other person, who said anything was wrong?!
Typically, we start our debriefings by looking for negatives. And once we find them, we can’t seem to see any positives. No wonder we avoid these types of evaluations!
Whenever I complete any presentation, interview or sales pitch, I ask myself only 2 questions:
- What did I like best about that?
- What will I do next time?
Notice the first question looks only for positives.
And the second doesn’t ask what will I do DIFFERENTLY, just what will I do. To presuppose that something needs to be different is to assume something went wrong. Maybe my critique will show that nothing needs to be changed. But if something does, it will come out in the answer more realistically than if I go looking for negatives.
Action – Use this 2 question debrief for your next 5 interactions. Notice how your reviews actually become a more positive experience.
Being able to evaluate yourself is a key component for creating success. And no one said it had to be negative!