Negative feedback: How to “deal”?!

“Dealing” with negative feedback is an important skill for personal growth and maintaining healthy relationships.

Your Advices

Here are eight tips for dealing with negative feedback effectively:

1. Don’t react too quickly: When faced with criticism, take a deep breath. Avoid impulsive reactions. Instead, listen actively. Understand the feedback before you react.
2. Grateful: Thanks the other person for their feedback. Show your gratitude to them for sharing it with you.
3. Sincerely: If necessary, apologize sincerely. Sincerity is an important part of dealing with feedback. Show that you value their perspective.
4. Summary of feedback: Get the point across. What specific aspects need to be improved? Consider how the feedback relates to your goals.
5. Act: Use feedback constructively. Make positive changes based on what you learn.
6. Find more feedback: Seeking feedback from others helps you gain new perspectives. Feedback is an opportunity for growth, so actively seek out more perspectives.
7. Receive feedback with a growth mindset: See it as an opportunity to improve rather than a personal attack. Develop patience and a willingness to learn.
8. Sympathise with the person giving feedback: Put yourself in their shoes. Understand their perspective and the impact of the feedback on them.

Examples

Here are two example situations and how to handle negative feedback:

1. Situation 1: You are working on a group project and a teammate emails you: “It’s annoying when you’re always late for meetings. This affects the performance of the entire team. Change your habits!”

• Unprofessional negative feedback: “No big deals. Everyone runs late sometimes !”
• Professional response and better handling: Hi, Thanks for sharing your views. I apologise for the inconvenience caused by being late for the meeting. I will make adjustments to ensure my punctuality does not affect the team’s performance.

2. Situation 2: You are working on a project and after the presentation, someone in the audience approaches you with: “Your presentation was terrible. You cannot state your problem clearly. A waste of my time.”

• Unprofessional negative feedback: “I think my presentation wasn’t too bad. They just don’t understand.”
• Professional response and better handling: “Sorry to disappoint you during the presentation. I will try to improve my presentation skills so as not to waste other people’s time. Thanks for sharing your opinion. Best regards”

In short, “dealing” with negative feedback is a skill that requires “mindfulness” and regular practice to get better. Feedback models can help you improve in different situations. One of the important things is to always stay calm in every situation.

References:

How to Respond to Negative Feedback Professionally | Fellow.app