Why Negative Feedback is More Important Than Positive

It's never easy to hear negative feedback. It can often feel like personal criticism or a slight, and your gut reaction is probably to feel hurt and offended. But take it from me, that negative feedback is worth far more than the positive. In fact, it's worth its weight in gold if it helps you to develop professionally.

Positive feedback is nice, and we all like praise which motivates us. But negative feedback does something more. It can motivate us – to change, to improve and to grow. When you first receive negative feedback, flip your reaction on its head. This isn't criticism, it comes from a good place and the person delivering it just wants to help you get better at what you do.

Negative feedback can lead to an improvement in the quality of your work. If someone points out where something has gone wrong, your brain immediately fires on all cylinders to look for a solution. Over time, you learn to spot the issues before they arise, thus improving your overall performance.

Think of the feedback as an opportunity for change. It might make you reassess your strengths and weaknesses, so that you can address the latter. Whether that's through training or adjusting your mindset, we all need a rethink and a reset now and then. If nothing changed, things would become stagnant and your career would never progress.

From now on, tell yourself that negative feedback is actually a positive thing. If, in the long-term, it makes you better at what you do, then it's nothing to be afraid or ashamed of.