We are all human and many of us, myself included, can get a bit precious when people look at our work with a critical eye.
As a result, many of us push self-review and critique to the back of the ‘Must Do’ jobs list.
Getting feedback, critique and evaluation of your work can be a challenging task for anyone - especially after a bad day.
But evaluation really is a key part of getting better at what we do and being able to learn from mistakes can be a key factor in any successful business – not just those that deal with tendering.
Critical eye
So, hide your pride and ignore review at your peril!
Devote time to looking at work you have done, and getting someone else to review that work, both during and after the process, is just as important as reviewing it yourself.
This enables us to learn from both good and bad points of any bid but crucially, gives us the best chance of doing it better next time around. That attitude will always make a business stronger in the long run.
If you can find someone to have a look over your work with a knowledgeable eye, make sure you ask them to do it at a time when they can really concentrate, not when they are doing a hundred and one other things or about to fall asleep at night!
We all know how useful THAT feedback would be!
Ask for feedback
So, in conclusion, put your pride away for a few hours and undertake a task that will make you better at what you do in the long run.
In addition, remember, anything we can learn off the people who are making the final decisions on whether your tender bid is a failure or a success is worth learning, so always ask for feedback post tender.
That review process will enable us to get into the mindset and psyche of someone who is marking your tenders. Sometimes, it will frustrate you. But, at other times, there are valuable lessons to be learned about how we present work, how we put our points across and how we try to make things easy for markers to read.
Trust me, looking back will give you the chance to drive you, and your business, forward.
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