Communication Options

How to Give and Receive Criticism Skillfully

Valid criticism, when properly given and received, can provide valuable feedback on what is or isn't working. Yet sometimes people get locked into believing that what they're hearing comes from a malevolent motivation. Therefore, they shut down, unable to learn from what the other person is saying. For example, in performance appraisals, some employees can't take in valuable feedback. Or a supervisor might become isolated from his or her team by providing unskillful feedback that's difficult to use.

Part of the problem is: when criticism is given, it's often too general, too late or not clear. The receiver has to guess its meaning. In this training, participants practice giving criticism in concrete, specific ways at the right time so that it can be received, understood and used more easily. They also learn ways to respond constructively when on the receiving end — even when the criticism may be inaccurate or invalid.

Topics covered include:

identifying types of criticism
assessing your style of dealing with criticism
handling criticism assertively
using specific guidelines for giving and receiving criticism
understanding why criticism is difficult to handle
learning to criticize the behavior rather than the person

Participants will leave this training with greater ability to give criticism that will be more easily understood and to receive criticism with more willingness to learn from it.

Prerequisite: Essential Communication Skills Module