dangers of reading ahead

The first assessment that my leadership class analyzed is our skill-o-scope, a 360 evaluation of our skills as seen by our selves, boss, and peers.

I'm very enthusiastic about this material. So, as the instructor presented slides about the metrics, how to read the form, blah blah, I eagerly skipped ahead in the notes. I turned a few pages and saw the profile of strengths and development needs.

I skimmed down to the "development needs as assessed by others" section and was flabbergasted by the fifth item. "Public speaking: speak compellingly in front of an audience."

What??? I thought to myself. I just CAN'T BELIEVE my coworkers think I'm poor at public speaking! That's one of the things that I know I can do well!

Then I looked at the section of "development needs as assessed by self" and was even more shocked that public speaking was again listed, at #4.

I MYSELF selected that as a development need?? I sat in puzzlement.

Then the instructor announced that the paper in our brochure is the average across 1800 previous respondents, and that they would now hand out booklets with our individual results.

Public speaking was not in there as a development need.