This has happened to all of us at some point. Maybe not spinach, but after a meal you have had something stuck in your teeth for a while. You don’t notice it, and after talking to several people (who could have commented on it) only later does a friend point it out to you.
Several people probably saw the spinach before your friend pointed it out to you – so why didn’t they tell you? Maybe they felt they were not ‘close enough friends’ with you and so pretended it just wanted there. Maybe they knew you might be embarrassed and so they wanted to avoid being the one that pointed it out to you. Of course, by not pointing it out, you were more embarrassed later.
Whatever the reason, I think when someone finally points out the spinach in our teeth, we are grateful to them for helping us. Like the spinach, there are often many things in life where we can benefit by having those around us point out areas for improvement – things we just might not notice in ourselves. This might be having a post-mortem review following a sales call to discuss what worked and how we can improve. It might be where we misunderstood a vendor’s questions and so our response was incomplete. It might be where we were not as thoughtful as we could have been in interaction and didn’t treat someone with respect. Of course, this feedback must be given in a supportive and positive manner, and not in a way to demean or reduce the person getting feedback.
However, the only way we can improve is by getting feedback – which means being receptive enough to welcome the feedback and surrounding ourselves with people who care enough about us to point out how we can improve.
Let’s help each other out and make sure to point out the spinach in the teeth when it is there.