Don’t Shred Effort
From a post I made on Linkedin in 2016
A common woe for communications professionals is the fact that your carefully crafted drafts sometimes end up in the hands of someone who will not simply edit them or suggest changes, but who will, instead, just rewrite them.
It's not that we don't expect critique and feedback; that's part of what we do. It's the scrapping of our effort and starting over that hits us in the gut, and causes us to sigh, "Why did they even hire a communicator if they just wanted to do it themselves?"
Clearly, these kinds of moments are common and understandable, and most times, teachable. It can be hard for other types of professionals to understand how to work with a communications professional. It's often a matter of winning their trust and (surprise!) using your communications skills to help them understand your value and the strategy you're working from.
My point is, the reason the scrap and rewrite hurts so much is because your effort, your work, has been totally discounted. That always stings, no matter what profession you're in. Even outside of work, it's demoralizing to have your work thrown out. Constructive criticism? That's great. Pointing out problems? Doable. Just throwing it in the trash with no feedback? OUCH.
While the scrap and rewrite is a small example that isn't devastating by any stretch, discounting the effort of an employee with no regard is a dangerous practice.
I listened to a great Ted Talk on this topic a while back that states it better than I can. In the talk, Behavioral Economist Dan Ariely shares the results of some experimentation on what motivates people to do their jobs. In short, he found out that it wasn't money or other rewards that caused people to carry on with their work, go the extra mile, and be fulfilled. The driving factor was meaning. People like to think the work they do has meaning.
It's not rocket science, of course. Still, his examples are powerful. I encourage you to take a listen.
"You shred people's efforts, output -- you get them not to be as happy with what they're doing. . . the bad news is, ignoring the performance of people is almost as bad as shredding their effort right in front of their eyes."
Don't be a shredder.
