HANDLING CRITICISM

PRESENTED TO: PRESENTED BY:

Ms Niharika Joshi Bhatt Anand Kumar
Kriti Gupta
Parina Bansal
Ravi
Sidharth Sachdev
UNDERSTANDING CRITICISM
 CRITICISM IS UNAVOIDABLE AND INEVITABLE:
There is no behavior everyone accepts, and critical
people will criticize anything!
 IT MAY BE JUSTIFIED:
We all have our imperfections, and this means that
sometimes we do something wrong or say something
stupid. When this happens,
any criticism we receive may
be well justified.
 FOR SOME PEOPLE, CRITICIZING IS A LIFESTYLE

 There are some angry, jealous and insecure people

in the world who are very critical.
 These people almost always operate under the
guise of "helping" us.
 They can always find:
 Some “Better way" we could
have behaved,
 Some higher goal we could have
achieved,
 Or some opportunity we shouldn't
have missed.
Effects of criticism can be
devastating and can affect one
at deep psychological level.
 FAILURE & CRITICISM
 Handling criticism has much in common with
handling failure.
 Indeed, criticism and failure frequently
present themselves together.
 Thus, when you fail to do something properly
it is possible that you will be criticized for it.
 The natural immediate response to criticism is
to feel discouraged and unhappy.
 However, as with failure, criticism has a very
positive side.
 TYPES OF CRITICISM
There are two
different types of
criticism:
 Destructive or
Unjustified.
 Constructive or
Valid

Criticism can be good for us, if it is wanted.

But handling unwanted criticism is a burden in all our lives.
 DESTRUCTIVE CRITICISM
 Destructive criticism hurts an individual's self-
esteem, causes psychological damage and
renders him less effective.
 Destructive criticism is not very useful.
 It may inform you that you made a mistake,
but if no remedy is suggested and there is no
show of confidence that the mistake can be
rectified, the net effect on performance will
be negative.
 DESTRUCTIVE CRITICISM
 Destructive criticism is not
very useful.
 The critic might:
 nag,
 recite your failures as a
person,
 try to appear smarter,
better, etc. than you,
 or criticize what you are
doing to get you to do
something else.
 HANDLING
DESTRUCTIVE CRITICISM

 Simply ignore it

 Don’t take it personally

 Toughen up
 Understand that we all are different
 Respond courteously but assertively
 HANDLING
DESTRUCTIVE CRITICISM
 Do it anyway:
Don’t change the way you act or the things
you say simply to avoid criticism.
 Enforcing your demands with your absence:
The only way to protect ourselves from chronic
critics is to demand that they stop criticizing us
and to stay away from them if they don't.
 CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM
 Constructive criticism is based on accurate
perceptions of events or behavior.
 The person who is criticizing is helping by
providing solid suggestions for change.
 You know it is valid criticism when you:
 have heard the criticism from more than one
person.
 the critic knows a great deal about the subject.
 the critic is generally known as someone who has
and applies reasonable standards of behavior.
 HANDLING
CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM

 Learn

 Turn negative into positive

 Pick and choose:
You don’t have to take criticism to heart
Try to separate the message from the
messenger and take criticism for what it is
worth.
 Keep your focus on what’s helpful for you.
• You can listen to all the critics, but don’t have
a need or craving deep inside for any of them.
• Instead, validate yourself by focusing on the
positive things you think and do. And get to
know who you really are, not what other
people think you are.
 COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUES FOR
HANDLING CRITICISM
Following techniques
are effective in
responding to
criticism:
 Acknowledgment

 Disarming
 Probing
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
 When someone criticizes you and the criticism is
accurate, an appropriate response is simply to agree.
 This technique allows you to accept your mistake
without apologizing or "beating yourself up" about it.
 There are four basic steps involved in this technique:
1. Say "You're right".
2. Paraphrase criticism, so the critic is sure you heard
him/her accurately.
3. Thank the critic, if appropriate.
4. Apologize or explain yourself, if appropriate.
 DISARMING
 This is one of the most difficult, yet powerful,
techniques for responding to criticism.
 Disarming allows you to defuse the situation,
without acknowledging that you actually agree
with the criticism.
1. Find something in the criticism that is accurate
and acknowledge it.
2. In your mind, there is no reasonable chance
that the critic is right. But, you acknowledge
the critic's feelings.
 PROBING
 This technique is effective when you can't tell
if the criticism is valid or unjustified because
the critic is vague.
 Probing allows you to gain enough information
from the critic to determine his/her intent.
 Using where, what, when, how, and why
questions allows you to elicit the information
you need to judge how to respond to the
criticism.
 "AAAA" APPROACH
TO RESPONDING TO CRITICISM

 Step One:
Acknowledge
 Step Two:
Ask for More
 Step Three:
Align
 Step Four:
Add Your Own
 HANDLING CRITICISM AT WORK

 Listen carefully
 Don’t let emotions
take over
 Don’t be silent or
over-defensive
 Don’t hold grudges
 Decide upon
corrective actions
 AS A LEADER
 Effective leaders can't please everyone, but
they can make criticism constructive.
 The price of leadership is criticism.
 4 Steps to Handling Criticism:
 Know yourself
 Change yourself

 Accept yourself
 Forget yourself
 BELIEVE IN YOURSELF
Swami Vivekananda quoted-
“Each work has to pass through these stages—
ridicule, opposition, and then acceptance.
Those who think ahead of their time are sure
to be misunderstood. ”
 Hence just believe in yourself and stay motivated.
 If you make the attempt to view all criticism in a
positive way and respond to it as prescribed above,
you'll be well on your way to yielding improved
results.
THANK
YOU!