No one likes a bad review at work, right? In an ideal world, all professionals would only receive positive feedback about their performance, but that is not the reality. In the “real” world, all employees can make mistakes and are still developing, which means that not-so-good feedback will happen. But you can turn negative feedback into great opportunities, did you know?
In addition to the bitter taste of hearing negative reviews about your professional performance, these situations are great for transforming discomfort into movement. In other words, seeing this annoying feedback as a way to boost your career, understanding what you need to adjust and what skills you need to develop to grow.
After all, who has never heard that “it is through mistakes that we learn”? When something goes wrong, we have the chance to reflect on what happened and identify how we can improve. And, to help you do this in your next feedback with “points for improvement”, we have developed the list below.
In it, you will find a true step-by-step guide. This way, you will know what you need to do to accelerate your career based on your mistakes.
How to turn negative feedback into an opportunity in 6 steps
1 – Let your guard down to hear negative feedback and absorb past perceptions
First, be open to hearing what the other person has to say. We know it’s not fun or comfortable to be in this position. However, if it’s unavoidable, you need to “make lemonade out of lemons” by starting by letting your guard down so you can listen openly and earnestly to negative feedback.
This way, you will be able to absorb all the points that the professional addressed without a reactive and defensive stance.
2 – Thank them for the review and ask more questions to understand each detail.
After listening to all the feedback, don’t forget to say thank you, because it’s better to know the negative points and be able to change them than to spend years repeating the same mistakes and asking questions.
You may have doubts, you may not have understood something, you may need more details and you may want more explanations about what happened. In fact, it is great that you take advantage of this moment to get everything out of the person evaluating you. It will not be a comfortable situation, but it is necessary so that you can, in fact, “smooth things out” and grow.
3 – Reflect on the points raised frankly
After completing this communication, you will enter a very important stage. It is time to reflect, frankly and honestly, on the feedback you received.
Make a note of the points that were discussed, recall the situations, put yourself in the other person’s shoes to gain a new perspective on their actions, and analyze your own actions. After all this, do you agree with the assessment? Can you identify that you did not act as you should have? Do you realize that there are professional standards that you need to change?
4 – Understand how you could have avoided mistakes and problems
After this reflection, you will move on to the second part of the process: taking action to change and grow in your professional career.
At this stage, the first step is to do the “go back in time” exercise. In this exercise, you will analyze your actions and think about what you should have done to avoid the mistakes, vices, problems and friction that happened in real life. This is very important to identify exactly where you slipped up.
5 – Create an action plan to correct the errors
During the previous step, you will probably identify some points that are repeated and were critical. For example, perhaps your mistakes originated from a lack of attention, the absence of a specific technical skill, a lack of planning, and many other possibilities.
So, when you notice these variables, you will create an action plan to “attack” them. In other words, you will think of strategic ways to grow and develop so that they do not hinder your performance at work again.
This plan, ideally, is quite detailed and includes several activities that will help you on this journey, such as strengthening specific soft skills , updating yourself, learning new technical skills and specializing.
6 – Keep updating and improving yourself to minimize the chances of making mistakes again
The more you expose yourself to new learning, the lower your chances of making mistakes. Therefore, by seeking new knowledge, with techniques, methodologies and concepts updated for your area, thinking precisely about the gaps in the assessments, you reinforce your professional profile and minimize the probability of making mistakes.