When did you become a correctional officer?

Confused?

Let me ask the question differently.

When did it become your responsibility to correct people when you think they’re wrong?

Correcting others rarely wins any accolades or warm feelings towards you, especially when your corrections aren’t asked for. In fact, correcting someone can often lead to them feeling embarrassed or, even worse, defensive. And once their defenses are up, there’s little chance of you and your ideas getting through to them.

Of course, there is a time and place when it might be necessary to correct someone, especially if you see them on a path to self-harm or on the verge of committing an egregious error that might cause them to have severe repercussions. This kind of correction usually applies to children and those that are close to you and hopefully understand that you’re speaking from a place of good intentions.

If you really feel the need to correct someone, then remember, it’s always better to praise in public and criticize in private. And this rule applies in almost all cases.

Look, I know it isn’t easy to stay quiet when you know that you’re right about a specific idea or topic, but it’s not your job to correct others. If they ask your opinion, then, by all means, let them know your thoughts, but otherwise, keep them to yourself.

The world, if full of grey areas and what you might consider being correct today, could end up being incorrect tomorrow. And unless you’re personally involved in research and gathering data and statistics about a variety of subjects, then there’s a high probability that you, too, are quite often incorrect.

So, since correcting someone is challenging to accomplish politely and sensitively, maybe the next time you feel like doing so, don’t. Not because you don’t care, but because it’s not your job. Before I end, I want to point out that not correcting doesn’t mean you agree with them – it just means that you’re confident enough in your own views to let them be confident in theirs.

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