Negative Feedback Can Be The Catalyst For Career Advancement

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In most of the companies at the time of performance reviews, performance appraisals are pre- pared and conducted, issues are identified and resolved, and feedback is given to the team and team members. This is a formal process, and your promotions and hikes are based on these feedbacks provided by your managers.

Besides this formal process feedback you receive from your other stakeholders can improve future performance on your current and future projects.  This information must be documented and distributed to the appropriate team members so that future project performance can be modified to improve results.

Good Leaders sets the goals and get things done by others using some leadership skills. They welcome and entertain feedbacks and inputs from their team and other stakeholders. Feedback can play an important role in improvement and shaping our career in the right direction, or it can also turn our career to entirely a black hole from where the revival is almost impossible. It depends on an individual how he/she takes a negative feedback. For some it is a learning for future but for some it is time to move forward.

Most employees do not take negative feedback in the right spirit. Being told that they have failed to meet expectations or that they have done something wrong at work can be a serious blow to their ego. But criticism is an unavoidable in both personal and professional life and one should always take it in the right spirit.Receiving negative feedback is not easy, at any stage of career and it is natural to get defensive angry or sad. But the fact is, this is an excellent opportunity to show how capable you are and there is always a room for improvement. It needs a lot of courage to be able to take negative feedback, but if taken in right spirit, can turn out to be a key to success.

If your mentor, manager or buddy shares a feedback, whether negative or positive, it is not that they are trying to let you down but look at the other side of the coin. They are the ones who care for you and want you to grow in your career. The problem is, employees take negative feedback as a personal attack. Very first reaction to negative feedback is denial, it is human nature to not to believe on things which are not in favor or unpleasant. There are some who react by asking a lot of questions. They want to dig it down to its roots to find the root cause and to better understand the basis of the negative feedback. It is good to ask a few basic questions to show that you are genuinely interested in resolving any perceived problems.  One should try to stay calm and focused at that time. All of us need feedback to grow in our life.

Some tips for helpful feedback

  • Don’t jump for the feedback too soon or too late. Ask for feedback after the completion of work, as this can influence your creative process.
  • Selection of right set of people: If you ask someone who is your competitor, then you might increase your chances for negative, unpleasant and demotivating feedback.
  • Selection of right size of people: Choose only a few people who you know are genuine and qualified for the type work you were into. Take the feedback in the right spirit as this group will be honest in providing the feedback resulting in helping you to improve and shape your work.
  • In case the feedback is not very clear don’t hesitate to ask for specifics with few examples. Otherwise unclear statements can leave you lost or you might end up spoiling everything.
  • Unpleasant feedbacks are generally hard to accept but if taken in the right spirit, no one stop you from doing exceptionally well and different from others.
  • Be prepared for a mixed reaction once you have completed your task as there are different types of people and you should know how to deal with each type.

Creativity is directly proportional to criticism. If you create something unique and different you increase the likelihood of receiving negative feedback, which is normal. In general, most people accept things the way they are and indifferent to the common reaction. A successful person can easily differentiate between the genuine and fake praise and criticism. So use your own discretion before working on feedbacks from others.

 

About Aditi Malhotra

Aditi Malhotra is the Content Marketing Manager at Whizlabs. Having a Master in Journalism and Mass Communication, she helps businesses stop playing around with Content Marketing and start seeing tangible ROI. A writer by day and a reader by night, she is a fine blend of both reality and fantasy. Apart from her professional commitments, she is also endearing to publish a book authored by her very soon.

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