When the feedback, progress report or appraisal comes back with ‘room for improvement’ how do you feel?

Do you get defensive or do you embrace it?

If room for improvement means that there’s the potential or capacity to get better, then why do so many associate it as being a bad thing?

It’s because room for improvement is usually negatively tied to a grade or compensation.

Educators and employers have unfortunately created generations of individuals that fear the words room for improvement.  When in reality, room for improvement is one of the best things that can be said about a person.

Imagine a world where the initial software program for a product was the only one ever released. You’d discard that product and the company would be ridiculed and would very quickly disappear.

Think of room for improvement as your own continuous software upgrades.

You are a work in progress and will always have room for improvement. So don’t shy away from it, use it to your advantage.