day 582: Timely Advice

Have you ever received a piece of advice or feedback that you said after, "I sure wish you would have told me this earlier and I could have done something about it!" We likely all have had this happen to us at one time or another. This is one of my beefs with an annual performance appraisal/feedback process. Because bosses know that they have a time in the year later to give the feedback they store it all up and hold it until that one moment and by then some of it is so old that it isn't actionable or relevant. Feedback and advice is not like wine. It does not get better with time. Feedback and advice is best when delivered as close to the event or circumstance as possible. It's a little like training a dog. It doesn't do any good to scold or reward a dog for something that happened earlier. To be most effective it has to be on the spot. I'm not saying we are like dogs, but maybe we are when it comes to feedback and advice. Look, if it was easy to give advice on the spot then we all would do it. We worry about whether or not we are going to say the right thing, or that we will be providing the right advice, or that we will hurt someone's feelings, etc. There is lots to consider, yes, but we should remember that timely advice can outweigh all the rest of the concerns. Solomon gives us a promise in Proverbs 25:11 about being timely; "Timely advice is as lovely as golden apples in a silver basket." Let's consider today if we are sitting on some advice and feedback that we need to give but have been hesitant to do so. Let's also be bold enough to go and seek the advice/counsel/feedback that we know is out for us but will not come to us unless we ask now. Let's let timeliness rule for a bit and see what comes of being able to take in and give out what can be most actionable.

Reference: Proverbs 25:11 (New Living Testament)