Feedback - Breakfast of champions

One of the main ways you can improve in anything you do is through feedback. Feedback can also be called criticism and can come in two forms; positive and negative. The question is: when does feedback become negative?

Feedback from others helps us realise our flaws and gives us direction on what to improve on and how to better ourselves. Sometimes it can be hard to take, especially if you personally feel you did something well only to be told that actually it wasn't as good as you originally thought.

Negative feedback can be extremely hard to take, the person giving the feedback may struggle to get their point across clearly and instead of appearing to be trying to help, it may appear as a personal attack on the individual which wont help either party, the person receiving the feedback may feel disheartened and demotivated to correct their errors in the future, whilst the person giving the feedback may loose the respect of others due to the manor in which they handled the situation which may potentially impact on productivity.

When feedback is given in a positive fashion, the individual is more likely to take onboard any suggestions to help them improve. This is what companies and people should be looking to do. Helping people through positive feedback can increase motivation as well as improving efficiency and the quality of work.

One of the main differentials between the two types of feedback (positive and negative) is how the feedback is given to the individual. If the points are simply written down they are open to the interpretation of the individual and something that you wrote in a manor which you felt appropriate may be interpreted by someone else in a rude and negative way. However, if you take the time to discuss the issues with the individual on a one to one basis, they are more likely to feel that you are trying to help them improve and that you want to make a real difference.

So what am I getting at? The next time you plan to give feedback to someone, take a moment to consider if the way you are doing it is suitable for the situation and that you have been clear in your points to reduce incorrect interpretation.

If you can take onboard positive feedback/constructive criticism you will better yourself, along with this others will see you acting upon their feedback and take note of the fact you want to improve and are doing what has been suggested. You are never too old or too good for feedback, it can help even the most experienced person from any walk of life. Don't take it as a personal attack and don't let it knock your confidence. View it as a way to better yourself for free, even if you don't like the job when you get the feedback you can take the feedback and learn from it and carry it with you to a new job or a new experience where you can hit the ground running as you have made the mistakes previously and have learnt from them and so hopefully won't make them a second time round.

Feedback can unite teams as well as improve the efficiency of how work is done in the future.