Feedback Thoughts: Effectively Receiving Criticism and Dishing it Out

Constructive criticism is a really difficult thing to achieve for many people, myself included. I am constantly forced to not only receive constructive criticism as a student and an employee, but I also I have to give others constructive criticism when I train students and new employees at work, provide peers with feedback while editing their writing, and work in groups on projects for various classes. After reading the articles for this assignment, I reflected on some reasons that I might struggle with both receiving and giving constructive criticism.

One of the biggest issues I tend to have stems from my own pride. I take pride in everything I do, regardless of how small the task may seem. I personally think that taking pride in one's work means they'll do the job right because they care about it's outcome and how it will reflect on their abilities. However, I also see the danger in this thought process because there are often factors that are outside of that person's control and attributing the success or failure of a project or task that they take on solely to their personal characteristics completely discredits such factors. By discrediting these factors, one not only could be inflating the actual success of that person, but also not giving credit to that person for overcoming some very extenuating circumstances. I find the latter to be especially true if the person was unable to complete the task and others review the failure with an all or nothing mindset, often reducing the work that person put in on the project to nothing, since the outcome was not a success.

I am definitely guilty of doing this to myself, which makes receiving criticism, especially from peers, feel somewhat threatening to my work. If I receive criticism from professors, supervisors, advisors, or really anyone who is in a position to be providing me with constructive criticism, I find that I often have a much easier time receiving it. However, when it comes time to do peer review in class, I find that receiving criticism can occasionally bring out the scarier side of me...

Meme on Constructive Criticism (Constructive Memes)

Ok, I'm not that bad, but I know someone else has to feel this way. A lot of times, I have to read what someone says about my work and evaluate the source of the criticism. What I mean by that is, sometimes we are forced to evaluate peer work and not everyone cares about the process or takes it seriously. If it is for school, the person reviewing your work might be seeking out a mistake to simply write something about it, rather than reading carefully. If the person is not a part of the group that is working on the project or has limited information on the project, it is also possible that they might have misinterpreted the purpose of the assignment. However, these two conditions are not as common as anyone would like to think they are, and often, even if the criticism seems misguided, there is some truth to it and a take-home message to be had.

Meme on Constructive Criticism (Constructive Memes)

So, how can I give better feedback so that no one looks at my comments and thinks I don't care about the review process or that I just really don't know what is going on? Well, while looking for the above two memes, I ran into a checklist of how to provide effective feedback and it really seemed to highlight all the things I felt like people were missing in their feedback.

Tips for Effective Feedback (Personal Excellence Blog)

Although I really think all of the tips outlined in the above list are really important parts of providing effective feedback that will elicit a positive response, I think the first tip is my personal favorite. It is just as important to mention what someone is doing well in your feedback, as it is to mention what they could work on. There is often a huge disconnect between your explanation of how to make something better and the message you are trying express in that explanation. Providing context of what you think is already good is critical in bridging the gap between your feedback's explanation and its message. That way, no one has to feel like you are simply "dishing out" constructive criticism, and the actual goal of the peer review process can be achieved.