Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks for all of your blessings. It’s time to express how much you appreciate all that has been bestowed upon you. Did you notice that I didn’t say some of your blessings or some of the things you’ve received.
I said ALL!!!
I said ALL!!!
All means all, and that includes things that maybe you aren't so thankful for, such as complaints.
It is tough to hear complaints. They make you feel defensive. Sometimes they hurt your feelings, but the reason that they do that is because we all want to believe that we are giving our best. In most cases, we are giving our best, but if we're honest, we're giving our best with the information or feedback that we currently have.
Complaints are feedback, nothing more, nothing less. They don't represent the information we have, but the information we need. They may come at us in hurtful manner, but the power within a complaint is that they reveal what we haven't seen yet, what we didn't know until now, or what we missed in our communication to those we serve.
What if instead of getting defensive at the emotion of the complaint, we actually heard the spirit of the complaint. We would approach complaints with the mindset of "I still have more to learn", and then maybe we wouldn't be so resentful. We wouldn't be so quick to provide a rebuttal, and we wouldn't be so annoyed. We would in turn be appreciative. We would grow. We would make this world a better place, and we would build confidence in the people who felt compelled to tell us how they felt. Maybe, just maybe, we would stop calling them complaints in the first place, and give thanks for the feedback.
It is tough to hear complaints. They make you feel defensive. Sometimes they hurt your feelings, but the reason that they do that is because we all want to believe that we are giving our best. In most cases, we are giving our best, but if we're honest, we're giving our best with the information or feedback that we currently have.
What if instead of getting defensive at the emotion of the complaint, we actually heard the spirit of the complaint. We would approach complaints with the mindset of "I still have more to learn", and then maybe we wouldn't be so resentful. We wouldn't be so quick to provide a rebuttal, and we wouldn't be so annoyed. We would in turn be appreciative. We would grow. We would make this world a better place, and we would build confidence in the people who felt compelled to tell us how they felt. Maybe, just maybe, we would stop calling them complaints in the first place, and give thanks for the feedback.
Happy Thanksgiving
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