Constructive criticism. Although easy to handle in theory, sometimes it can feel hurtful when we are actually on the receiving end.
However, there are real benefits to giving and receiving constructive feedback. Learning to internalize the lessons contained within a critique is key to personal growth and improving your work.
Constructive criticism is different from flat-out criticism. When someone offers truly constructive feedback, they are clearly conveying direct and honest information. It is not hateful, spiteful, backhanded, or meant to dishearten the person receiving the feedback.
It is meant to provide specific examples of the good and bad, and offer solutions to make improvement easier as well as mitigate future problems.
If a critic is being overly harsh and not very helpful, they are not being constructive; they are just being critical. This is called deconstructive criticism. You can also learn from this feedback, however. It might be hard, especially if you are a sensitive person, because you will likely need to recover from a hit to your morale.
Since constructive criticism is meant to be helpful, it takes practice to become a quality critic. Anyone can list off shallow compliments, but providing real, honest, actionable information without crushing the other person is an art.
The interaction between the critic and the receiver can make or break the person or the project. Being able to give high-quality critique and being able to accept feedback are equally important.
5 Tips for Giving Good Quality Constructive Criticism
Knowing how to give constructive criticism is essential for two distinct reasons:
- You’ll be able to provide valuable and helpful information to those you are evaluating
- You’ll be able to integrate criticism you receive more easily, and you’ll be able to better identify the real ideas given to you during unconstructive criticism
There are a few pillars of quality to follow when giving constructive criticism.
Focus on the Situation
Ensure that you are critiquing something a person is presenting whether it be a project, idea, or job performance. You don’t want to accidentally cross the line into criticizing the actual person. That will only cause hurt and distrust.
Focus on the qualities that you liked about the subject at hand and encourage more of that behavior, tenacity, creativity, or whatever it may be. Avoid bringing up other situations in a negative way. Using past wins as a motivator or template is a good idea; using past fails as a reminder of poor execution is not.
Be Timely
Depending on the situation, you may need to choose an appropriate moment to deliver your feedback.
If someone has a presentation, write down your points and wait until they are finished before bringing them up. If something is happening in real-time, you may have to wait until there is a natural pause before bringing attention to an actionable point. If tensions are high, you may have to wait until other issues are resolved before delivering sensitive information.
Whenever possible, you should try to give feedback as soon as possible, when everyone’s memory is fresh.
Avoid dredging something up from a long while past, especially as an example of a past failure. That will most likely only come across as a personal attack.
Offer Actionable Suggestions
Criticism without any direction is a real morale buster. Before holding a critique session with someone, be sure that you have thought of some solutions to the points you bring up, as well as the willingness to hear out the other person’s ideas. If there is a group critique, foster an atmosphere of teamwork so everyone can think of solutions together.
Use “I” Statements
This is a good point to remember for any difficult conversations you may have in any area of life.
When you use an “I” statement, like “I think,” “I feel,” etc, you avoid sounding accusatory of the other person. It shifts the focus to how the item is received by a viewer rather than how the person is. When you say “You did this,” or, “You said that,” the focus becomes how you feel about the other person, not how you feel about their presentation.
Of course, you will probably need to point out things the other person said or did in order to convey your message, but always preface it with an “I” statement.
Do Not Offer Criticism Publicly
Constructive criticism is meant to be helpful for everyone involved. It is not a publicity stunt or a way to publicly shame someone. When you can, hold your critique in a private meeting room or other appropriate space with only the people who are directly involved. If you can’t, politely pull the person off to the side and discuss your points out of earshot of others.
"I will take every constructive criticism, make it my own, learn from my mistake, and go forward."
Julie Payette
Receiving Criticism Graciously: Receive Criticism
Knowing how to accept constructive criticism is just as important as being able to give it. You definitely don’t want to be someone who can’t take what they dish out!
Receiving criticism is a huge sign of maturity, leadership, and steadiness.
Being unable to take criticism makes you seem weak, defensive, unreasonable, and unwilling or unable to grow. So, be sure you mindfully practice integrating the advice offered to you during a critique.
Understand Their Perspective and Listen
Even if you think you gave 110% on a presentation and it was absolutely perfect, you may receive criticism. It doesn’t mean you did a bad job, it means you always have room for improvement.
Put yourself in the other person’s shoes: what is their background career-wise and in their personal life? What do they know that you don’t? What do you know that they don’t? Chances are that having a different perspective critique your work, they will see things that you missed.
Make sure you use active listening and ask questions for clarity.
Take that information and use it next time to make your project more well-rounded.
Avoid Taking Things Personally
As discussed earlier, constructive criticism is not meant to attack a person. Sometimes, a critic will not have the best technique and what they say might sound like an attack. Sometimes we misinterpret things or are naturally defensive.
Remember that in a situation where everyone is trying to improve, what is being said to you is meant to make you better. It is meant to be about something you had a hand in, not you as a human being. It can knock your self-confidence down a peg or two when someone tells you something less-than-ideal about your work, but it’s necessary so you can come back better next time.
Learn to integrate the relevant information and accept that you are human and will always have room to improve. Let your confidence repair, and feel good knowing that your critic and your team all want you to succeed.
In Case of Attack, Use Filter
There are times when someone will give deconstructive criticism, either on purpose or by accident. Instead of letting it make you feel vulnerable or attacked, see if you can find the nugget of truth within the message.
If someone is attacking you, ask yourself if what they are saying has any merit. It could be that their criticism is valid, but they are saying it in a less-than-nice way. You can still improve even though they may not be doing the best job of giving you the information in a respectful way.
If what they are saying is outlandish, irrelevant, or otherwise untrue, you can simply ignore the criticism. Be firm in your self-esteem and don’t let someone shake it out of you with harsh words.
Examples of Constructive and Deconstructive Criticism
To help you understand these ideas even better, here are some deconstructive and constructive criticism examples.
Example 1
Deconstructive: Your presentation is too long.
Constructive: The presentation is about 30 minutes long, but we need it to be closer to 20 minutes. I feel that you can sum up your points more concisely and shave a few minutes off that section. Right now, you have some extra information in this section that I think you can remove and everything will still be understandable.
Why: The deconstructive feedback was vague, aimed at the presenter, and did not offer any solutions. The constructive feedback was targeted at a specific issue, used “I” statements, and offered solutions.
Example 2
Deconstructive: I think that you did a really bad job on this project. It’s hardly any improvement from the project you did last quarter. I feel like you aren’t even trying.
Constructive: I see where you tried to use this technique here, but unfortunately it just doesn’t seem to be working. I feel like this project may have been too complex for you. For that, I apologize. We will have someone with more experience help you rework this. Please don’t hesitate to ask for help if you feel in over your head.
Why: The deconstructive criticism used “I” statements, but in a passive-aggressive way that still attacked the person rather than critiqued the work. They brought up something from the past to make the presenter feel bad, and they offered no solutions or help. The constructive criticism was level-headed and understanding. Even though the presenter’s work was not up-to-par, the critic, the manager, offers to provide further teaching to help this person in the future. It is the manager’s duty to make sure all their team members are capable of their work. They also extend the invitation to ask for help rather than present a poor project.
Using Constructive Criticism for Personal Improvement
We may think of constructive criticism as strictly something that happens in the workplace or in academia, but it can happen in any area of life.
When an opportunity for constructive criticism arises organically, you might not even know that it’s happening. Nobody will call a meeting, there won’t be a compliment sandwich, and you won’t have a group session discussing how to improve.
Criticism in real life might look like a friend saying, “That’s not cool to do.” It could be you saying to someone else, “What you said makes sense, but how you said it was kind of rude.”
Learn to identify when you have given and received constructive criticism in every setting; business, academic, and personal. You may choose to hire a personal coach who can teach you to give great constructive criticism as well as process criticism you receive. Search for a coach on Superprof to help you!
Integrate these lessons into your personal methodology of how you approach situations, ideas, projects, interactions, and more. Every critique is a chance to learn how to do something even better! When you know how to give and take criticism you are able to squeeze out more helpful information from every interaction. Having the self-awareness to use every opportunity to improve means your personal development will skyrocket.
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