Can you do it better?

How do you know your performance is good enough? Ask for criticism.

I didn't post yesterday because I was trying to figure out how to recover from some criticism I asked for and received. My critic is a well-polished editor whom I respect and admire, and I was hoping to get back glowing reviews. However, while she liked my ideas, she had some suggestions for improvement. Yesterday I was figuring out how to use those to make my writing better.

Today is my first post incorporating her suggestions. Please feel free to comment on my trial, as additional critique is always welcome.

So, the big questions: How do we get criticism and how do we use that to be better? I had a boss once who suggested we always ask ourselves, and our customers (including our family) a simple question. "What could I have done better today?" Do we want that much interaction, though? I say yes. We can always be better. But, who should we really be asking? We can't please everyone. Make sure you are pleasing the appropriate audience, and as self-centered as this may sound, that audience is ultimately the one which can help us the most. Ask yourself, who is my customer? If you sell retail, your customer is obvious, but what if you are in a corporation working as a project manager? Who is your customer, and do you have a few? Obviously, the stakeholders in the project would be customers, but who else? Don't assume that your boss is your customer and the only person you should look to please. Think about the outcome of the project, who will be the consumers, and who is to benefit from the results. Those are your customers, and the people you should be looking to please. They are the ones you should be asking: "Can I do it better?"

We can always do better, and we should. In a world of ever increasing commoditization of products and services, differentiation from your competitors is paramount to success. If you want to survive, you have to constantly seek to do things better, more efficiently and deliver superior result. The best way to get there is to ask your customers, the consumers of your product, "...what can I do better?..." on a daily basis.