Guest Blog Post: How to Handle Negative Feedback

Many of our guests post here about their personal experiences and lessons learned with negative feedback, but this is a guest blog post from the marketing technology blog (see link for more details). The blog post title is “where to guest post” and it provides a brief overview of what the article is going to be about.

Happy feedback from your customers is one of the biggest drivers of a successful business. When you start getting negative feedback, it can be difficult to know what to do with it and how to maintain the positivity of the rest of your customer base. But don’t worry, we’re here to help! 

Here’s a few tips on how you can best handle negative feedback:

Negative feedback can drain energy and cause frustration. This guest blog post will give you tools to handle such feedback in a healthy way.”

Guest Blog Post: How to Handle Negative Feedback

What does it feel like when someone gives you negative feedback? Like your blood pressure skyrockets, your heart races, you feel angry, frustrated, out of control? The thing is that it’s not the other person’s fault. 

This article will give you tools to handle such feedback in a healthy way.”

This guest blog post will give you tools to handle such feedback in a healthy way. From how it feels during delivery to what type of behavior makes productive responses more likely.

“This article won’t offer tips for how to respond to feedback; there are plenty of resources online covering that topic. If you have a specific question about how you should handle negative feedback, I encourage you to check out the resources at the bottom of this post.”

If you have a specific question about how you should handle negative feedback, I encourage you to check out the resources at the bottom of this post.

Instead, here’s a six-step method for keeping your composure and sailing through negative feedback with grace and competence.

1. Prepare

First, be honest with yourself about what you need from this feedback session. Do you just want to vent frustration? Are you trying to change behavior? Find out how the feedback will actually be used by your team, and focus on the concrete action items the negative feedback suggests.

Avoid assuming that people have good intentions or that they really want to help you. Maintaining a positive attitude is critical for receiving good information and acting on it effectively.

2. Give real-time context so both parties feel heard

When preparing your response, it’s important to give real-time context so both parties feel heard and understood. Set aside any assumptions about intent or motivation that might be clouding how you interpret the feedback. 

Leave your ego at the door. For example, if someone is giving you negative feedback because she feels you’re not capable of doing certain tasks, let her know that this is the case.

3. Get specific

Consider each person’s level of skill and experience when offering constructive criticism so you can provide context around what is possible for improvement. Let the feedback focus on what you can do to improve.

4. Be respectful and humble in your response

Respect is a big part of receiving constructive criticism because it empowers both parties to take action. Humility is needed when you get negative feedback because it allows people to be honest about what they observed without hurting your feelings or limiting your growth. 

This is not to say that you have to agree with the person giving you negative feedback, but be open and willing to hear what they have to say. 

This doesn’t mean you have to admit fault or take full responsibility, nor does it mean that you need to agree with them. Simply be humble in the face of the feedback by appealing to a higher ideal and focusing on what can be done going forward. 

For example, if the critic says something snarky like “You aren’t interested in doing a good job,” then simply respond with “I really want to do a great job leading this team. I’d like to understand how my team perceives I’m doing and what I can do differently.” This is a humble and sincere response which is respectful of the critic’s opinion.

5. Get yourself in the right mindset for receiving feedback: focus on learning and growth

The next step in handling negative feedback is to focus on understanding and becoming better. Simple curiosity and empathy will go a long way toward creating an environment where the person giving you negative feedback feels safe offering you advice. 

Like any skill, receiving criticism requires practice, but it’s worth the time investment if done correctly because of the benefits it offers you for personal growth, leadership development, and overall job satisfaction.”

6. Ask for a follow up meeting to examine what went well and what can be improved upon

In the end, it’s important to get the entire team involved in an examination of how things went. Part of this is data mining from what you’ve already collected, but it’s also important to get feedback from people who didn’t have a chance to be involved in that “negative feedback time.” 

You want to find out if there are any areas where they have constructive suggestions for improvement.

“Understand that receiving negative feedback is a normal part of the process. Negative feedback is not personal in tone or intent.

Meta Description: Many of our guests post here about their personal experiences and lessons learned with negative feedback, but this is a guest blog post from the marketing technology blog. The post is here to give you some more information on how to handle negative feedback.