It’s the classic shorthand feedback – “Pay more attention to detail.”
A young mentee shared with me that this was a comment on her performance review.
She also shared that she didn’t know what to do with it.
Where to go with this feedback
It led us into a conversation about observations versus judgments. And about context and priorities.
Ironically, she needed more details:
- Was there a typo in the client’s name, which upset them, so proof-reading is a priority?
- Did another team send their final report in a nice package, which your client might also appreciate, so special touches are a priority?
- Was the executive summary overly wordy, which weakened the recommendation, so discernment is a priority?
- Did a graphic need to be more legible to keep the client engaged, so design is a priority?
- Was there a mistake in a spreadsheet that delayed analyses, so precision is a priority?
Otherwise we’re just guessing
It’s the consequences of an action that emphasize if attention is a priority. Otherwise, we’re left to guess what the feedback is actually about. And we’re left to guessing if it’s worth strengthening our skills or if it’s about finding collaborators.
We’re human, not robots. We will never grasp every detail and we’ll never be perfect. But we can minimize and even leverage imperfections, when we have both context and collaborators who bring different perspectives.
This is about more than the workplace
I was reminded of one of my favourite stories I tell about my Mom:
I had moved into an apartment in Montreal that had a nice, but small kitchen. I agreed with Mom that a border – a strip of wallpaper around counter top height – would really help to cheer it up.
This led me to be standing in a Reno Depot (a mega hardware store) looking at a massive display of rolls and rolls of border. Next to me, Mom asked me to pick some options.
I tried to remember some guidelines:
- yellow is a good, happy kitchen colour
- lines will help keep it anchored
I tentatively talked out loud and pointed to some, and then asked her what she liked.
She beelined straight to one. She clearly had simply been entertained by me.
Mom’s version of attention to detail
At that moment, I could not have told you how my kitchen cupboard doors opened – if you pull from the bottom, or if there were handles. She had been in that apartment’s kitchen basically once.
When we got home with this border (that was yellow, and had a baseline) she drew my attention to the cupboard knobs. They had a round enamel insert, with some tiny painted flowers on it…that matched perfectly to the flowers on the border that she picked out.
I will note that I had successfully calculated how much we needed to buy.
We were both detail-oriented, just in different ways
In this story, I’d say we were both, successfully, detail-oriented. I had my eye on details of logistics and implementation. She had an eye for details of design and impact. The success of the project was due to our working together on it.
TL:DR
- Give feedback using observations, not judgments.
- When told to focus on details, ask for more context.
- Blend your eye for detail, with that of others, to fully leverage diversity of perspectives.
