There was a time when I was constantly given feedback to the tune of "this isn't good enough, change it to [manager's opinion]". I've worked in tech marketing, where this is extremely common.<p>I'd ask why, but often the reason wasn't well articulated, or it wasn't articulated "customer-first". This in turn led me to change my behavior so that I was doing things to get my manager's approval, and not because I wanted to communicate clearly/better with our customers.<p>That was incredibly frustrating... the realization that you're doing something so that the manager approves of it, or lets it go live. And I never knew if I was right or wrong, it would all depend on the manager's opinion at the time of reckoning. I suspect the larger impact of this seeping into a company's culture can be catastrophic, since many teams' north-star becomes "what will he/she think?", versus doing better for their customers.<p>After I started managing people, I made the same mistake. But at least I can recognize it now, and make an honest attempt to explain the "why" behind any feedback I'm giving.<p>If I can't give a "why" for a subjective opinion or feedback, then I think harder about it, and try to understand why I "feel" that ways. I think this helps those reporting to me grow, and gets them to think about how the customer will perceive our marketing communication.<p>So yeah, if you're managing people, please give the "why".<p>Edit: grammar.
I love the fact that this hits the heart of the feedback problem in today's super dynamic teams, who relentlessly focus on speed of execution. While that is not a problem in itself, it does sometimes lead to adjacent issues like absence of actionable feedback loops for team members, that'd help the organization much better in the long run.