Even with parking brakes engaged, it’s possible to force a vehicle to move. However, wheels, rotors, brake pads, and other components are damaged. Vehicle performance is reduced to a bare minimum and stupendous volume of smog is spewed to the environment. Talk of a tedious and unpleasant ride! But this is also true of human relationships. Insensitivity engages relational brakes, so to speak. It curtails optimal potential.
Certain tendencies defeat purposes. It’s good practice to run performance evaluations regularly. In fact, feedback is the lifeblood of corporate world. By reviewing customer feedback, a company understands its own strengths and weaknesses. Executives rely on this data to formulate administrative decisions. In the absence of consumer feedback, operational strategies are nothing more than preposterous guesswork. No human enterprise can adequately satisfy clients whose input it neither seeks nor desires.
Honest Evaluation
Disaffection is an early sign of operational glitches. Outbursts of anger, insolence, indifference, etc. are examples of negative feedback. Such reactions from those who should show affection or support are telltale pointers to relational breakdown. When negative feedback is ignored, it eventually runs out of control. It can complicate or stop a venture altogether.
Are you a:
- Spouse whose partner would rather confide in strangers than talk to you?
- Parent whose children won’t consult you about their lives?
- Boss with a high staff turnover?
- Leader who derides your aides?
- Priest whose audiences follow your sermons with stooped heads and forlorn expressions?
- Gospel minister who is accused of exploiting people?
- Missionary who tells unflattering stories about communities?
If that’s the case, you are driving your car with parking brakes engaged, so to speak. You are shooting yourself in the foot, defeating your own purpose! If you don’t unplug self-imposed barriers, your best efforts will yield less than their potential.
Prudence invites honest feedback, not flattery. Sadly, many people are averse to correction. They relish deceitful tributes than the pointing out of flaws. Yet, consumers base their decisions on experiences. A customer’s negative experience poses existential threat to a product or service. It’s in the best interest of an enterprise to resolve causes of negative feedback. Promptly! Retaining favor is paramount. If consumers don’t like the way you treat them, they won’t want your wares. Unhappy customers are the doom of any enterprise!
The words ‘consumer’ and ‘customer’ are used here in a general sense applicable to family, business, religion, politics, etc. For instance, a man’s insensitivity invalidates his authority and freezes voluntary submission from his wife and children. In the end, family breakup becomes inevitable. Children leave home with no desire to reconnect. Similarly, a priest who denigrates his position of sacred honor loses the support of parishioners. In commerce, customers turn elsewhere to satisfy their needs when a retailer or services provider becomes indifferent to their wishes.
There’s absolutely no position, title or brand that can guarantee consumer loyalty in, and of itself. Trust is not involuntary; it is earned!
By Humility and Courage
I don’t mean to suggest that maintaining a positive image with consumers is easy, or that it’s achieved by merely following simple steps. Sometimes feedback is subtle, requiring deep discernment. Sometimes hostile forces are at play. This article limits itself to self-imposed obstacles. By courage and humility, two virtues that often seem to contradict each other, this challenge can be overcome.
Many people were raised in cultures that scoffed meekness. Humility was cowardly, a refuge for wimps who couldn’t fight for their rights. In such cultures, courageous people are “macho” tough, abrasive, and shameless. What a distortion! Humility is the highest form of courage. Self-control trounces fear of rejection. Humble people choose what is right regardless of consequences. They aren’t afraid to admit inadequacies. The humble seek help; they repent and ask forgiveness. They neither downplay offences nor excuse misconduct. Humble people don’t put on façades to win admiration. They don’t spin misinformation to look intelligent. If they don’t know something, they are honest enough to say so.
Inversely, pride is insecurity in flamboyant masquerade. Cowards go to any length to disguise themselves. They fake social status, wealth, intelligence—anything that could boost their public image. They put others down to look better; they lie and make false promises. Ruining other people’s lives doesn’t bother them at all. But trickery has no capacity to boost confidence. A falsified image is sustained by endless cover-ups. In the end, it tumbles like a house of cards. Hypocrisy is a wretched way to live.
Love Without Hypocrisy
How are purposes sabotaged in obvious glitches? Conceit! A person’s sense of self-importance overrides the purpose s/he is called to serve. It’s a dangerous blindfold. Unfortunately, even good Christians are afflicted by it.
The twelfth chapter of Romans discusses this problem among Gentile believers. It sums up thus, “Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another (Rom 12:9,10 ~KJV).
Love is a cure-all for carnal proclivities. True love conquers selfishness. It purifies a servant for service. Godly love doesn’t use people to achieve personal goals. It seeks the welfare of those it’s called to serve. It’s up to God to reward faithful service. A servant must never peg his/her service to earthly benefits.
The apostle Paul explains that church is a body. The efficacy of its operations rests on individual parts playing their designated roles. The same is true of marriage, family, government… That’s a sobering concept. No one can claim to appreciate others while looking down on them. The health of a body is in the cooperation and proper function of its individual parts. That’s the basis for humility. Harmony, not exclusivity, procures victory for everyone.