3 Steps For Effectively Dealing With Constructive Criticism
One of the secrets of successful professionals is knowing how to deal with constructive criticism in a healthy way. When you can handle constructive criticism from bosses, coworkers, clients, users, and even friends or family you’ll be able to identify your mistakes and learn from them. You’ll also have a healthy perspective on which criticisms are constructive and which are negative or not useful for you. How can you effectively deal with constructive criticism? Follow these 3 steps!
1. Analyze: The first thing you should do when you receive critical input is to analyze it. Think over what this person said and decide if it’s valid. If it isn’t, you can simply skip to step 3. However, if there’s even an ounce of validity to their criticism you should move on to step two.
2. Act: So you’ve found some validity in this person’s critique of you or your actions. The next thing you should do is decide how you can best correct your actions to prevent the same results from occurring again, thus stopping the criticism. If there’s nothing you can or should do move on to step 3. If there’s a way you can act to change it and you want to make that effort, get to it!
3. Let it Go: Don’t let criticisms haunt you forever, you need to forget them if you found no validity in them, couldn’t or shouldn’t change your actions in response to them, or if you’ve already acted to change your future results. Dwelling on criticisms can stifle your joy, creativity, and desire to keep working harder. If you’ve done all you can it’s time to let it go.
Everyone has an opinion and, when you’re at work, you need to know how to handle those opinions or criticism with professionalism. If you follow these 3 steps you’ll know how to handle both constructive and destructive criticism in a healthy way that will help you make the changes you need to make and then move on!