How to Take—And Give—Criticism Well

If I am criticizing to help, I am doing it right; if I am doing it to harm, I am doing it wrong. 

To keep critical feedback in the first category, the research tells us that it should have five elements:

the care of the recipient in mind;

respectful delivery;

good intentions;

a pathway to improvement;

and appropriate targeting of the recipient’s needs. 

Scholars writing in 2014 showed that positive feedback given to students in public was 9 percent more motivating than when given privately, while negative feedback in private was 11 percent more motivating than in public. 

Consider Isaac Newton. In 1672, at age 29, he published a paper on light and colors of which he was probably quite proud. Most critics received it favorably, save for one: Robert Hooke, a well-regarded scientist and inventor, who wrote a condescending critique of Newton’s paper. As legend has it, Newton was so angry at Hooke that he slashed every portrait of Hooke he could find, which is why, per the tale, none exists today.