Whenever You Criticise Someone, Criticise Yourself First

It’s hard to give criticism without getting overly excited and bashing them emotionally. Jason Fried over at weblog 37signals shares a tip on how to avoid this tired practice.

Picture: Jason Rogers/Flickr

Criticism, he notes, is different than bashing, which is generally an aggressive, knee-jerk, useless response. So, he says, bash yourself first:

A good trick that helped me cool myself down a couple years back was to institute a personal “1:1 bash ratio”. I didn’t always hold myself to it, but basically it went like this… Before every external bash, I had to bash myself first. If I’m going to bitch about someone else’s work, what about my work? If I have a problem with how someone runs their company, how about how I run mine? If I’m going to complain loudly about someone else’s point of view, what about mine? Are there any flaws in my way of thinking? There must be, so what are they? What am I getting completely wrong?

It isn’t a new idea, he says, but it is a new approach that may change your behaviour if you bash just a little too often. Hit the link to read more.

1:1 Criticism Ratio [37signals]