One of the most common questions asked of Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends & Influence People book is on criticism.
If I’m a boss, and my employee does something wrong, then why should I not criticise him/her? If my child son or daughter does something wrong, why should I not criticize / discipline them?
As we saw yesterday, criticism, hate and anger are only emotions, lead to distress, and often have the opposite outcome of what was intended.
So was Dale Carnegie wrong? Not at all.
He never said don’t ‘correct’ someone if you have to. He only said don’t ‘criticize’ someone.
Both words start with ‘c’, but have entirely different implications. If a manager shouts at his/her employee, of course the employee is going to switch-off mentally. However if the manager sits the employee down, tells him/her that they are doing well, but to rise in this organization, they need to ‘correct’ a few things, then this form of feedback is much more palatable!