How to Give Kind Criticism, and Avoid Being Critical : zen habits
Curated from: zenhabits.net
Ideas, facts & insights covering these topics:
6 ideas
·3.41K reads
16
Explore the World's Best Ideas
Join today and uncover 100+ curated journeys from 50+ topics. Unlock access to our mobile app with extensive features.
Why We Give Criticism
- To help someone improve. Sometimes criticism is actual honest feedback.
- To see a change that we would like. If we regularly read a magazine or blog, for example, there might be something that often bothers us that we’d like to see changed.
- To further the discussion. Criticism can be a way to get a good, intelligent discussion about something going on.
- To hurt someone or to vent our frustrations.
- To boost our ego, to show how powerful or knowledgeable we are.
329
614 reads
Why Criticism Hurts or Angers
- The criticism is mean-spirited. If you use insulting or degrading language or put down the person in any way, they will focus on that, and not on the rest of the criticism.
- If you focus on the person instead of their actions, you will make them angry or defensive or hurt.
- They assume you’re attacking them. Some people can’t take criticism in a detached, non-personal way.
- They assume they’re right. Many people don’t like to hear that they’re wrong, whether it’s true or not.
315
525 reads
How to Deliver Criticism Kindly
- Don’t attack attack, insult, or be mean in any way
- Talk about actions or things, not the person.
- Don’t tell the person he’s wrong.
- Don’t criticize at all. Give a positive suggestion instead.
399
658 reads
Suggestion, not criticism
No matter how nice your criticism and how much you focus on actions, a criticism is often not the way to go.
A suggestion can be positive, it can be seen as helpful, it can be seen as an instrument for improvement and change.
365
539 reads
Be Positive And Specific
- Negative criticism hurts the discussion because things can take an ugly turn from there.
- It’s easy to give vague criticism. It’s harder still to make a specific, positive suggestion:
262
484 reads
Relate to actions
Never criticize the person. Always criticize the actions.
And when you’re making suggestions, make suggestions about actions, not about the person.
321
596 reads
IDEAS CURATED BY
Alana F.'s ideas are part of this journey:
Learn more about personaldevelopment with this collection
How to set achievable goals
How to manage time for personal and professional life
How to avoid distractions
Related collections
Similar ideas
4 ideas
How to Give Criticism Without Sounding Like a Jerk
lifehacker.com
10 ideas
How to Give Constructive Criticism: 6 Helpful Tips | Personal Excellence
personalexcellence.co
5 ideas
How to Take—And Give—Criticism Well
theatlantic.com
Read & Learn
20x Faster
without
deepstash
with
deepstash
with
deepstash
Personalized microlearning
—
100+ Learning Journeys
—
Access to 200,000+ ideas
—
Access to the mobile app
—
Unlimited idea saving
—
—
Unlimited history
—
—
Unlimited listening to ideas
—
—
Downloading & offline access
—
—
Supercharge your mind with one idea per day
Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.
I agree to receive email updates