What is failure? This is very subjective. If you were late in completing your work by a few hours, it might not seem catastrophic to you, but your manager might view it as a failure. Conversely, you deliverable might be full of errors and you feel horrible, but your manager tells you to relax because that’s expected from a new team member. In this post, we’ll define failure as “repeating the same mistakes and/or not learning from them.” Here’s how you can avoid this:
Do understand the expectations of your manager. If it’s not clear, ask for examples and clarification, and then use this information to make sure you do the job well.
Don’t argue with their expectations, however silly they might be. All your emails should be in Verdana size 10? That’s fine! It might be their personal preference, but so long as they are not asking you to do something unethical or immoral, just follow their lead. It’s more productive if you focus on meeting expectations rather than convince them why it’s not a big deal.
Do take feedback seriously. If your team leader is explicitly telling you they are not happy with what you did, pay attention. Ask questions if you are not clear, and ask support if you think you need help to address their feedback.
Don’t ignore or dismiss feedback! Nothing can cause more damage than ignoring something that was explicitly told to you. Again, if not clear, ask questions and clarification, but don’t simply ignore. It will come back to bite you.
Do set high standards. As much as you should sync with your manager, you also need to evolve your own standards. What should your work look like if no one was evaluating you? It should still look excellent! You should set the bar high. If you fail to reach it, you will still have done better than if you hadn’t set the bar at all.
Don’t lower your standards because you can get away with it! You might notice people around you get away by doing a shoddy job. Even so, do not lower your standards. You goal must be to deliver excellence. Not because you are getting paid or evaluated but because that’s who are you are - an excellent professional! Do not let your quality or worth be determined by your compensation or evaluation!