1. Be Respectful.
“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand: they listen with the intent to reply”
Stephen R. Covey
“When you react, you are giving away your power. When you respond, you are staying in control of yourself”
Bob Proctor
- Practise great listening skills. Listen, don’t defend. Listen to understand not to reply. Use the strategy of active listening; fully concentrating on what is being said with all our senses and staying engaged. This nurtures a culture of respect and trust as teams trust one another to speak up.
- Respond, do not react. Though understandable given the circumstances, our emotional responses are often not helpful and hence mist be managed. If you are unsure how to respond unemotionally: take a deep breath and give yourself time and physical space to collect your thoughts. A simple “Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I’d like to think about this further before I can share a proper my response” will suffice.
Scenario 1: Jack from Customer Service.
Jack, customer service representative at a supermarket, puts in the necessary work to make sure everything runs smoothly by putting in long hours, meeting deadlines and occasionally doing different duties when required to make sure the job is done. One day, Jill (the store manager) calls him aside to give him negative feedback about his performance. His job requires him to think more strategically than he is demonstrating. How do would you respond to this situation?
2. Be Reliable.
“Ask for clarifications or perhaps alternate scenarios or interpretations. We speak some of the same language but want to make sure everybody’s on the same page”
Ed Rappaport
Demonstrate reliability by asking for specific examples but not to poke holes or over-apologize for every instance. Mistakes happen due to miscommunications, machine error or simply from having a bad day. Use the insights obtained to understand where the feedback may be coming from. Ask also what they would consider the most effective way to respond in such instances. Apologize once and seek clarification. Making sure feedback is heard and put in to actions establishes honesty in the workplace.
Scenario 2: Sara, a manager from home.
Sara and her colleagues are currently working from home due to an unforeseen outbreak. They are trying to manage everyone’s schedule and making sure they still get everything done. However she is letting the pressure and stress of the times and her expectations get the best of her. This trickles down to other coworkers and it is affecting the work. A team member, Seth, shoots Sara a personal message where they talk about their expectations of the kind of support her leadership needs to offer during this time. How would you go about rectifying your conduct given this feedback?
3. Be Resourceful.
“The past is for learning, not for dwelling”
Unknown
Seek to improve, take accountability and thank them for their feedback. We’ve all been there at some point in our career and more times than we can count. Negative is not a commentary on your character or the person you are outside of your work. It is simply feedback on your work so take it in stride and do everything you can to be better and overcome current hurdles.
Conclusion: The ways in which we deliver and respond to negative feedback greatly impact how we perform and how others view that performance. In every case we need to always insure that our feedback:
- Empowers those we’re giving it to so they are able to learn more about their current performance and improve their future performance. Otherwise it is pointless.
- In turn, this will empower them to execute their jobs well such that they can give their best to those they serve.
- Finally this cultivates excellence in service delivery, performance and overall creates a happy place to work in.
If you’d like tips on how to handle the negative feedback from clients, please find them here.