Selfalot

Daily Quote: “Negative feedback is better that none. I would rather have a man hate me than overlook me. As long as he hates me I make a difference.” Hugh Prather

Most often we consider feedback to fall under the negative category. The fear of being criticized and possibly to even be ridiculed for making a mistake, stops us from looking for feedback. On the other hand positive feedback is always welcomed by us.

What is the difference? The difference is only in our perception. If somebody says that a particular project could do with a bit more polish or finishing off we bristle at the criticism. But we are very happy to hear when somebody tells us that a project is outstanding and could win us a prize.

Yet in both instances there could be nothing much wrong with your project, it’s just that somebody is providing you with some clues as to what you might want to do in order to make the project work better or be even more perfect.

Just because you are receiving feedback doesn’t mean that you are a bad person or a failure. It means that somebody cares enough about you to let you know what can be done to improve your achievements.

Tiger Woods for instance went through a slump in terms of winning tournaments. So he received coaching to improve his swing and he won again. Tennis player Andy Roddick got himself a new coach at the beginning of 2009 and suddenly he was winning games again even finding his way to an epic Wimbledon final.

These top athletes have no problem with getting feedback. They know that without feedback they can never improve and will not succeed in winning the big tournaments and matches.

In all of their playing times it is certain that they will have both negative and positive feedback. The great players can handle both because they know they will grow as people and as sportsmen if they take on board all feedback.

Sow how do you cope with feedback? If you receive some negative feedback do you give up straight away or do you check to see whether the feedback is valid and if taken note of it could improve your work?

It is often said that the older we get the less we are able to cope with negative feedback. In fact we often can’t cope with any kind of feedback. We can’t even accept that technology might have moved on and that we need to learn new skills. The idea that we might make mistakes and have negative feedback stops us from growing our skills.

It’s not only people who give us feedback. External events and clues provide us with information too. We might not make enough money from a project, we could be scoring less goals telling us that there is something wrong with our technique.

We could be ill over a period of time which tells us that our diet is not the right one for our health. A particular weight loss programme could be creating more damage than good. Or we might find we are unhappy with the hours of work we have to put into a project without seeing much progress.

There are often clues that inform us as to what is going on in our lives and whether a course of action is the right one to pursue. Learning from this feedback is very important. You might be able to find a diet more suitable, or a money making project that provides a higher return or find activities that make you happier. Keeping an eye on feedback whether positive or negative will allow you to refocus yourself and benchmark your progress against the results you wish to attain.