Sunday, November 22, 2009

Defend yourself or not?

Lately at work I've been finding myself in an interesting situation. I'll get a comment or a hint from someone that I made an error. Nothing overt and nothing accusatory.

Just a hint - almost like a backhanded compliment. This is more like a subtle, (very subtle), accusation. Sometimes it's my boss. Sometimes it's just some random "customer".

When this happens I have a dilemma. Should I respond to defend myself? That's my first instinct. But then I think, "That just shows I'm defensive. It's not cool." Plus I could be imagining the hint. Maybe there wasn't anything accusatory at all.

I think a much better way is to simply ignore the subtle hint. You have no obligation to respond to a hint that you made a mistake. You maybe have an obligation to respond to a direct accusation - but a hint is just a hint.

Important people don't have time to respond to hints. They'd ignore them. They'd focus their energy on continuing to do the best work they possibly can. That's what I'm going to try to do.

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