My old boss, SECDEF Rumsfeld was fond of saying, "If you're not being criticized, you may not be doing much." If you are a man of action (MOA), you are bound to upset some folks. Providing constructive criticism is an art form in and of itself. How do you practice the art?
I recall admiral Gallery wrote about ‘damning with faint praise’ as in that was a fairly good job, or admiral Pettigrew standing up at hot wash after my skipper and the Marine General described how useless the exercise was and an utter waste of time, money and effort. Pettigrew got up then as the OIC and asked the rest of the attendees, ‘other than Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? Very gracious and unexpected response to heavy criticisms.
ReplyDelete