Criticism comes in many forms.
A few examples would be aesthetic criticism which is where we judge the beauty or Style
of something, logical criticism which is obviously just an objection about an idea or an argument
that you feel is not rationally sound, and self-criticism which is self-explanatory,
but there are many others.
And I think that we could all agree that criticism is an important part of our growth, not only
as individuals but as societies.
I mean come on think of where the US would be right now if we hadn't eventually started
to criticize things like slavery.
That was a very good example of moral criticism.
But criticism, if not given correctly can actually be very damaging.
I'm sure we've all experienced that in one form or another at some point in our lives
whether it was our boss telling us that we did something stupid or our co-workers saying
we screwed up or our family or whoever.
Point is ineffective criticism is running rampant.
So how do we know how to give criticism properly?
Well that's what I'm going to talk about in this video.
Hey everyone Daniel here from Next Level life and today we're going to be talking about
a great way to give constructive criticism.
And we're also going to be covering a way that I've seen many praise as being great
but I don't really like.
But first I feel it would probably help to illustrate how effective, constructive criticism
and ineffective destructive criticism differ from one another.
Destructive criticism aims to destroy the target of the criticism.
Its goal is to show that the point of view of someone else has absolutely no validity
at all and lacks any Merit.
It often involves personal attacks on people but believe it or not there are a couple of
situations where it could be used well.
One example would be in political or military contexts where ideas are brought up that may
put people's lives on the line unnecessarily.
We don't want people to lose their lives for no good reason and by mercilessly criticizing
the idea destructively we give ourselves a good chance of making sure that the plan is
never put into action.
And as a result save lives.
but more often than not destructive criticism is not a good way to go.
Constructive criticism on the other hand doesn't necessarily look to say that whatever the
person you're giving the constructive criticism to did something wrong, or that their ideas
are completely without Merit, rather it's merely a way for you to point out that whatever
goal they were trying to achieve could have been achieved better or faster through a different
route.
Which sounds great but so many of us are so used to hearing destructive criticism that
we have a hard time thinking about criticism in any other light.
And as a result when we actually get constructive criticism we don't always take it in the way
that it was intended to be taken.
But that doesn't have to be the case.
So let's get into the two methods for giving constructive criticism.
I'll start with the one that I have a bit of a problem with and that is the hamburger
method.
What is the hamburger rule you ask?
The hamburger rule, also sometimes called the feedback sandwich, is where you try to
embed your constructive criticism in between two compliments.
For example say Sarah was the head of a committee that organized an annual family picnic for
your company.
The picnic was a success and people enjoyed themselves but it kind of broke the bank,
exceeding your budget by over 35%.
Using the feedback sandwich here's how Sarah's boss might've handled the situation.
"Hey Sarah our management was very impressed with the attendance at our family picnic.
The weather was great and The food was even better.
And the activities for children were just wonderful!
By the way, you overspent by 35%.
You should check your expenses and try to be within budget next time.
But I understand you worked very hard to coordinate the logistics for everything And I congratulate
you for doing a remarkable job leading committee and for your enthusiasm.
Thank you for a job well done."
There are a couple of things that can go wrong with this method.
One of them is that the praise can actually be so big that it obscures the criticism.
Depending on how the manager actually sounded when he said it, that 35% over budget criticism
may not have stuck with Sarah.
Another mistake that could occur when using this method is that the receiver, in this
case Sarah, might feel that the praise is just trivial.
Because it doesn't take long for people to catch onto this praise criticism praise pattern.
And once they do it comes off as inauthentic because the praise is just a lead-in to the
criticism.
So as the employee you're just waiting for the managers critique as opposed to actually
taking the praise to Heart, even if the manager's praise was sincere.
With that being said there is another method that you could try and I feel it's a little
bit better in most situations.
And that method is known as the effective feedback model.
The effective feedback model is a four-step process where you start by asking an employee
whether they are open to hearing some feedback.
If they are then you describe whatever specific behavior you saw that you want them to change.
Once you've identified the behavior you describe the impact that that behavior has weather
on you or others or the company or whatever the case may be.
The fourth and final step is to discuss next steps.
If you're giving corrective feedback this is often accomplished by asking an open-ended
question to encourage the employee to suggest what they can do to change their behavior.
This not only empowers them to choose what will work best for them but it makes them
more committed to actually changing.
Here's an example of how this works.
A manager pulls his employee to the side and says "hey Jack can I give you some honest
feedback?"
Jack says sure so his manager says "alright when you roll your eyes in meetings when others
are talking and you say things like 'you guys just don't get it' here's what happens: we
end up losing really good people.
And You often end up losing opportunities that you really want, like that last move
you just didn't get.
I don't want that.
I want to see you succeed.
So is there anything you can do about this?
Is there anyway that I can help you?"
So that's a good way I think to give constructive criticism without coming off like a jerk.
If you liked this video or learned something be sure to like And subscribe and If you're
new to the channel you can also check out my playlists for more content, I'll leave
those in the description below.
But that'll do it for me so until next time thanks for watching and have a great day.