Developmental feedback can be tough to hear, but it’s an inevitable part of life. No one is perfect and there will always be room for improvement.
However, while developmental feedback doesn’t have the ability to hold us back, a lack of willingness to act on it does. Whether you realize it or not, this is a poignant moment in your career – one in which you have the power to use the information to either boost your career or stop you in your tracks.
Don’t let the opportunity for growth pass you by. Here are four ways to use feedback to your advantage:
- Welcome the News!- Use the information as a sign of the next thing you need to work on to be successful and be open to the fact that the messenger might be right.
- Keep your Ego in Check- Avoid a resistant mindset and see what you can learn from the situation at hand. Always respond with openness and a willingness to change.
- Remain Neutral- Don’t respond in a defensive way. Instead, find a neutral, accountable response such as “I’ve noticed that about myself, too, and will work on it.” This will give you time to think about it before saying something you might later regret.
- Stay in your Lane- Focus on your development, assumptions and actions and do all you can do to improve the situation. Resist the temptation to point to others or outside circumstances and focus on your own behavior and actions.
Check out our most recent article on this topic at Success.com for more on how to handle feedback at work.
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Chez says:
SO true! I’ve also found that sometimes you aren’t read for the feedback or it isn’t true. In either case you still should never be reactive. Remain neutral and thank the other person for being brave enough or forward enough to have come to you with something they thought was important. You don’t have accept anything in that conversation but definitely hold the space to be an active listener. It takes guts to give feedback sometimes so appreciate what the giver might be experiencing too.