How do you handle criticism?
Criticism can be good and helpful for people to improve. However, in my opinion, criticism does not help a company move forward.
Any criticism can involve resistance. Many managers think that if they praise too much the employee may not continue to do a good job—they will get lazy on the job.
A few years ago I had a European manager named William (not his real name) who worked very hard and was sincere. However he spent so much time on details his work was never finished on time. One time we had a deadline on a project for a customer. Five other employees finished on time, William did not. He spent more hours than anyone else on this project.
I was upset with him and criticized him in front of other people for not finishing his job. He was upset and didn’t show up for a few days at work. He didn’t call or let me know what happened. He showed up a few days later and had a private talk with me. I found out he felt insulted for getting criticized in public.
As a result not only did we lose business, we almost lost him and he played a big role for my company at that time. Since then I use the formula, “Praise in public and criticize in private.”
Don’t compare one employee against another such as saying, “John finished. Why didn’t you?” Instead ask him, “Are you overloaded? Will you meet the deadline? Do you need help?” Or, “It looks like you are working quite hard on this project. Will you finish it by the deadline?”
I used to think that criticism would motivate my employees to do better. WRONG! It is not motivating anyone. In fact it decreases the productivity of the department.
Here are five tips to avoid criticism.
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