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10-Step Guide to Career Management

The 10-Step Guide to Career Management provides proven strategies for developing positive, career-building interpersonal skills and work attitudes.

One of the most important things all reps must learn is how to accept and act on criticism. In the brief section below, Learn to Accept Criticism, you’ll see how much useful information is packed into a brief half page of this practical guide.

Step 4: Learn to Accept Criticism

No one likes criticism, but it’s best to hear it with an open mind. In fact, you can often learn more about how to improve from criticism than in any other way. A useful practice is to treat all criticism in the same objective way — take what’s useful and practical and learn from it. Discard the rest.

Here are three valuable tips on handling criticism in a positive way:

• Consider criticism as part of the process of doing your job. This helps eliminate the emotional reaction to being criticized and makes it more of a problem-solving opportunity.


• Use your listening skills to fully understand the criticism. Turn off the ego, crank up the objectivity, and apply the same listening skills that work with customers. Let the other person talk. Make eye contact, and concentrate on what your manager or coworker is saying.


• Don’t defend yourself. In most situations in which you are being criticized, it’s pointless to try to defend yourself, and it interferes with the learning process. As long as you are marshalling your defenses, you are not focusing on what the other person is saying. And that means that you won’t be thinking about how to solve the problem.

 

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