How To Handle Feedback

According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary- Tenth edition, feedback is “information given in response to a product, a person’s performance of a task, etc., used as a basis for improvement.” We receive feedback daily as we lead our lives and we need to know how to handle it, especially so that we stay motivated and we know the improvement points and areas in our life. Everyone who is serious about leading a life of success and leadership should have a journal or at least somewhere where they write all the feedback that they get in their life.

Feedback can demotivate or motivate you depending on the feedback you get but mainly depending on the attitude you use in your life in the quest to live our mission statement and achieve our goals. Our attitude is the thing that is most important in the way we handle feedback. I use each and every feedback I get, positive or negative to inform my subsequent actions and thought process. I take all the feedback I get in my life and I will share with you how I handle it.

Whenever I get feedback I first look at who has given me that feedback and what was their motive in saying what they relayed back to me as feedback. I use this because it informs which ground the person was standing on and the level of concern that they have with my life. If a person has a high level of concern for me and tries to understand me in as much as they can I will take all the feedback they give me seriously whether positive or negative. In fact when people close to me give me feedback that is negative it tells me that I am in the red/ danger zone and I will be so concerned with changing what they have hinted. Then there are people who have Pull Him/Her Down (PHD) attitude, all they want is to demoralise people. These people will never stop talking negatives. However I still look at what they say and see if there are any genuine issues in their words. If there is I look into how I can improve, but if there are no issues I simply discard it. I never lose sleep because of feedback that comes from people with that negative PHD attitude.

I have a book where I write all the weaknesses and strengths that I get through feedback from people daily. My motivation and strength comes from those encouragements and comments that people pour in every day. I am concerned with every single word that is said about me. No person can ever afford not to care about what people say about them if they desire to be achievers. I regularly visit the book where I write the feedback I get and see if there is any improvement in my conduct and way I do business.

Take seriously any feedback that you get and use it for your good.