It struck me this past week, most people have an UNHEALTHY view of feedback – especially negative feedback.
The challenge with that is if you ignore, dismiss or “hate” on negative feedback, you risk creating a bubble around yourself which – in the end – severely limits your growth potential.
So, here are 3 tips I’ve found useful (even necessary) when it comes to negative feedback
1. Listen. Paying attention and listening to negative feedback DOES NOT mean you take it personally, believe it immediately or even commit you to do anything about it right away. Listening is simply the objective decision to pay enough attention to understand what is being said by whom in what context – that’s it. Separate the belief and process of Listening from analyzing or acting on the negative feedback
2. Analyze. Now that you’ve heard the negative feedback, you can begin to assess
- Who it’s coming from (customer, competitor, first-hand or someone who has formed an opinion based on others, etc…)
- What is REALLY being said – what is the real suggestion or improvement that they are calling for and
- The reasons behind the request — is someone frustrated, kind, angry or just lashing out. Once you understand the context, you can better assess your possible reaction.
3. Pattern Recognition. Often, if I hear negative feedback that is coming from a place of constructive intent AND there is a pattern (even just a few times hearing it) then there is definitely something to it. At that point it’s more a matter of understanding when and how you can respond.
In some cases, it may be changing messaging or marketing, in other cases it may be core to our products or services. Still other examples may be your delivery, customer support or even an opportunity to add more products or services to your portfolio.
I have to say, some of the best ideas (Marketing and Product) have come from feedback that may have seemed negative at the time, but which turned out to be very positive in the end.
What’s your experience with negative feedback?
