Be negative, criticize, and complain

I hear a lot on LinkedIn about how being negative, criticizing and complaining are negatives - they're attributes of "unsuccessful" people and how everyone is encouraged to stop this behavior if they want to be "as successful as Steve Jobs". But I think it's a bit more nuanced than that. In fact, the most successful people I know are negative about the status quo, they criticize, and they complain. So in the spirit of New Years resolutions, I'm going to present an alternative resolution :)

The reality, in my view, is that unquestioning positivity, unchallenged initiatives and ra ra corporate culture all mask much much bigger problems: lack of trust and lack of mutual respect. The unfortunate consequence is something far more damaging to your personal happiness and your organization's success: cynicism

But let me pull back for a minute. Because I think the actual problem is not negativity, criticism, or complaining about the situation. Those are just attributes. The actual problem impeding your success is the same problem for you and your organization whether you are exhibiting positive or negative behaviors. The problem is simple:

It's a lack of motivation to change the situation. Lack of motivation to create.

You can be super positive or you can be super negative, but if you do nothing but exude those behaviors, you may as well just go home.

Unfortunately, for many organizations, it's much easier to be positive and do nothing than to be negative. If you're negative/critical/complaining, you need to have a sturdy resolve and a "get sh$t done mentality" - because you've just volunteered to help do a whole bunch of difficult work! But hey, that's way more fun right? ... guys?

Be negative

If your job requires that you agree to things that you don't agree with - change your job. Sometimes you need to "toe the company line", and that's OK as long as that's the agreement. But that's not OK if that's how internal communications routinely work. Organizations need to constantly evaluate the negative outcomes. In fact, the most successful boards are paranoid about the negatives. You'll never hear the leaders of successful companies talking about how "great" everything is at leadership meetings. They are maniacally focused on the negatives and how to fix them.

Negativity must fuel positive change

So, take the negative view, challenge assumptions, but be respectful of people and decisions - and absolutely celebrate success.

Be critical

You know what? If you think you and/or your colleagues are doing a bad job, you should be critical. How else do your people improve? How else do you improve? Without criticism you and your organization are working blind. Or way worse, you're simply not improving. Likely the only reason you don't criticize is because you don't trust that you can speak openly and honestly. Being criticized should never be equated with lack of performance. Lack of improvement should be equated with lack of performance. Being critical should also never been coupled with any other motivation than to improve the situation or behaviors - for the team. But being critical is "critically" important.

Criticism must fuel improvement

So, be critical, and expect criticism. Enjoy the lively debates. If people are being critical, then it means they care about the outcome and care about your work - that is a wonderful place to be.

Complain

If you think something sucks, say it. Unfortunately, that's often a 'brave' thing to do. Why? Because you're likely undermining someone's work. The result is that you're often perceived as blaming your colleagues for poor performance. But the reality is much different if you have trust and mutual respect. It's different because the complaint is only made for one reason: to improve. Complaining challenges the organization to try harder. Complaining highlights problems that need to be highlighted. Complaining vocalizes issues that can become toxic to an organization. You should never be afraid to complain. Critically, however, is that you should complain openly to the right people. If you find yourself complaining to the wrong people and doing nothing to affect change, it's time to leave.

Complaints must fuel fixes

So complain away. No organization is perfect and we should all be working to make things better - so make things better, take action, make changes. Revel in the honest and open culture and appreciate that you legitimately have a voice and that voice can create positive change.

Have a great New Year. Create something awesome.

Steve is the CEO of the cloud workflow company, ManyWho. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and three children. When not working to better the world of enterprise application development he can be found amusing his kids with his guitar playing.