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June 19, 2012 at 12:00 AM
Once you begin to take action on a project or a goal, you’ll start getting feedback about whether you’re doing the right thing. You’ll get data, advice, help, suggestions, direction—and even criticism—that will help you constantly adjust and move forward while continually enhancing your knowledge, abilities, attitudes and relationships.
But asking for feedback is really only the first part of the equation. Once you receive feedback, you have to be willing to embrace it and respond to it.
Positive or negative…it’s all good! There are two kinds of feedback you might encounter: negative and positive. We tend to prefer the positive (money, praise, promotions, raises, awards, happiness, inner peace, etc.). It feels better. It tells us we are on course and doing the right thing. We tend not to like negative feedback (little or no money, criticism, poor evaluations, complaints, unhappiness, inner conflict, pain, etc.).
However, there is as much useful data in negative feedback as there is in positive feedback. It tells us that we are off course, headed in the wrong direction and doing the wrong thing. This is priceless information!
How most people handle the negative. Three of the most common—and unproductive—responses to negative criticism are:
