THE DARKER SIDE OF BEING JUDGMENTAL

Judgment is an activity that we unconsciously do, at every moment of our life. It is said, that the moment we meet a new person, our mind just takes 10 seconds to form an impression about the person. He might not have even spoken a word or shook hands with us. His face, his dressing, the colour and texture of his skin, his body language, communicates something about the person to us, based on which we make our  judgment.

This process of continuous judging has greatly contributed to what we have achieved or where we have reached today. All the choices we have taken in our life are a result of our judgment. We judge a person, before making him our friend. We judge an education programme, before making a career decision. We judge a company, before making a job decision. So every moment of our life, we are judging.

This process of judgment is good for us, but what happens when we pass our judgment to others. Is it right or wrong? For example, many a time, we go for a movie and come out saying that the movie was horrible. We go to a hotel and come out saying the food tasted awkward. We go to a garment store and say the collection was not good. We make bold judgments, not realizing the negative effects it can have on people and business. We need to give room for perception. The way we look at things is not the only right way. People may have different tastes and different preferences. Of course, we have all the right to say, that I did not like the movie; I did not enjoy the meal; the showroom did not have the garments with colour of my choice, etc. But quite often we do not do that. We just give our verdict, without a second thought.

It is not right on our part to ruin somebody’s business, by our negative comments. Our words catch up like wild fire. Negative comments reach out faster than the positive ones. You would have observed this.

Now, imagine someone telling something negative about your business to others and think about the impact it could have on your business.

I have found in a few restaurants this caption written on a board or a wall “Tell the good things about us to others and the bad things about us, to ourselves” (in tamil). This might be a fitting job to do when we encounter an unpleasant experience or a unsatisfactory experience. Leave your thoughts and feelings, there and move on. If he changes, it is good for him and if he does not, let him decide his own dooms day. Why should you? Most of the time, it would be resolved. Because any sensible business owner, who wants to improve his business, would look forward to these type of negative feedback from his customers, which will give him a opportunity to improve and make his products or services likeable to his customers. In a highly competitive business environment, only those who adapt to the customers can survive.

So next time, before you pass a judgment think. It only takes a few seconds to make a comment, but its effect may be drastic. Let us imbibe the virtue of “Live and Let live!

Happy Reading,

D. Senthil Kannan

Article Dated Jun 2008