Blog

Category: responding to feedback

negative criticism

Negative criticism – how to tell the useful from the useless

Criticism can be hard to take.  Even if it is well-meaning, it can hurt.  And if it is unkind, it is even worse.  What should you do?  React or ignore it?  Respond or walk-away?  Act on it or disregard it. 

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behaviour change

What will it (really) take to effect behaviour change in your employees?

One of the questions I get asked very often by leaders is how to effect behaviour change?  Not just for today or tomorrow, but in a way that creates long-term and sustainable change.  The answer is: with short-term actions.  Indeed,

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Look backwards to move forward – a leadership message from the Sankofa

Do you know what the Sankofa is?  I heard it referred to briefly at a recent conference I attended, and it stirred me to research it further.  Turns out the sankofa is a metaphorical bird, generally depicted with its feet

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The art of dealing with criticism at work

Criticism stings.  Sure, it is sometimes couched as gentler “feedback”, or offered as “advice”, or even presented as a “pointer”.  Yet criticism it is.  And most of us don’t respond positively to criticism, especially at first.  Dealing with criticism is

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Leaders, do you solicit and listen to negative feedback?

I’ve often blogged about how leaders can give negative feedback more effectively (including this post: Five things every leader should know about giving negative feedback).  But a recent event caused me to consider how good leaders are at soliciting and

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How to reduce the effect of destructive criticism

Back in February, my professional colleague Patricia Morgan wrote a guest post on workplace resiliency, specifically on how resilient people have an attitude of gratitude, even during tough times.   Her post was received so well that I asked her to

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