 Receiving negative feedback at work can be a devastating blow for some or an amazing opportunity for others. The difference between these outcomes is in your mind. Whenever we are learning feedback as a gift, a way of speeding up our improvement or extending our skill level beyond what we could have learned on our own. In the sporting world nearly every serious athlete has a coach to provide them regular feedback so they can keep improving. In the business world many senior managers have coaches to provide them with feedback to improve. It will be lovely to only get positive feedback yet we usually learn more from what we don't do so well. To help you turn even the most negative comments at work into a learning opportunity for you I'm sharing these six positive ways to manage negative feedback at work. Being able to positively receive negative feedback is a sign of professionalism, maturity and self confidence. Taking positive action from negative feedback shows determination, the will to work and improve and demonstrates that you're a safe bet to invest in for further skills development. All of these attributes and responses will progress your career significantly. My name is Jess Coles and if you're new here in Hans Dot Training shares people management expertise, resources and courses to speed up your journey to becoming a great manager. I've included links to additional videos and resources in the description below as well as a video timestamp so do take a look at these. And if you're willing it would be great if you included in the comments below the most poorly phrased piece of negative feedback that you've received. Sharing will help you and others put their own negative feedback into perspective. The first positive way to manage negative feedback at work is don't assume the worst. When you've worked hard and done your best and then get negative feedback it is really easy to take it hard, get angry or just dismiss the feedback altogether. Give yourself time to process your emotions and calm yourself down. And this might be just nodding and trying to take in what is being said so that you can reflect on it later. Keep how you express your emotions under control. The manager who is giving you negative feedback may be really good at communicating this without upsetting you or they might be terrible at it and leave you feeling awful. When dealing with negative feedback at work try hard not to take it to heart. In your mind turn any negative comments that attacks your self-worth into statements aimed at your actions decisions or choices. For example you are told you did this really badly but mentally you turn this into the actions I took went really badly. This mental trick helps you manage your emotions and keep a positive mindset. Your actions decisions or choices are also much easier for you to change than your personality. I personally always think about feedback I receive. Consider if it is valid or reasonable by trying to put myself in the other person's shoes. Think about the situation objectively before properly accepting the feedback or rejecting it. Follow a similar process when dealing with negative feedback from a colleague. Don't assume the worst when receiving negative feedback or negative comments at work. The second positive way to manage negative feedback at work is to ask clarifying questions. When a manager or colleague takes the time to provide feedback positive or negative it makes sense to learn as much as possible from the feedback. Ask clarifying questions. You're trying to understand what has led to the feedback and make sure the negative feedback is specific and useful to you and no one wants to go through the trauma of receiving negative feedback that you can't do anything with. So ask as many questions as you can. You know some example questions could be would you mind expanding on that comment as I don't really fully understand it? Do you have a specific example in mind that you could share so I can get a better understanding? When you say XXX what exactly do you mean by this? I want to learn as much as possible can you let me know about why you think that? Gain the best understanding you can. Asking questions also gives you time to calm your emotions down so you can consider what is being said. Asking clarifying questions is a great way to deal with negative comments at work made by colleagues looking to put you down. Ask good questions with confidence and you can stop these types of negative comments very quickly. The third positive way to manage negative feedback at work is to be appreciative of the feedback. At the very least acknowledge the feedback even if you don't agree with it. If for example say either thank you or something like I appreciate you taking the time to let me know what you think. Don't get defensive with negative feedback. Don't try and justify why you took the actions decisions or choices that led to the negative feedback. All this does is confirm that you haven't listened to the feedback haven't taken it in or haven't accepted it. How to accept feedback from your boss professionally includes listening carefully and demonstrating you've taken what has been said. Getting feedback helps you improve what you do. Be appreciative that the person has taken the time to provide you feedback in the first place. If you show your appreciation you are much more likely to continue getting feedback which will help you improve what you do a lot faster. The fourth positive way to manage negative feedback at work is to think what can I learn from this. Feedback is an opportunity to learn and improve. Improving what you do will help you in the medium or long term whatever your job. My worst boss ever gave me a load of feedback that demonstrated that he had no idea what I was doing or how well I was doing it. The feedback was still invaluable. I learned that it was a bad idea to have a boss no matter how poor not being aware of what I was doing. Their ignorance did not help me and I changed how I proactively communicated with all my bosses after that. The point of the story is that there is an opportunity to learn from all feedback you receive even if what you learn is a long way from what the person giving the feedback intended. Always seek out what you can learn and improve on following any feedback positive or negative. The fifth positive way to manage negative feedback at work is to take action and stay positive. There is nothing better than giving feedback to a person and seeing them take positive action based on that feedback. Taking positive action is the best way to respond to negative feedback from your manager. Taking positive action demonstrates your maturity, your resilience and your professionalism. Taking action makes you a more reliable and valuable team member. You are showing that you are going to improve. In my view it remains important to evaluate and consider all feedback before deciding to take action or not to take action. When you decide you need to take action then of course choosing what action you're going to take is also important. It is your career your life so don't just take action because someone else thinks it's a good idea. Make sure that you're clear about why you're going to take action and make sure that it benefits you. Do your best to stay positive even if you have a terrible manager constantly giving you negative feedback. There are people that are never happy. Try hard not to allow yourself to be dragged down because of negative feedback or comments and I appreciate that it is easy to say and much harder to do. Stay positive and take action when you think it is in your best interests. The sixth positive way to manage negative feedback at work is to ask for feedback often. Getting really useful feedback at work in my experience remains fairly rare. As you become more senior in your career and you influence the success of more people getting useful negative feedback about what you're not doing well becomes harder and harder. Ask for feedback as often as possible. If someone is brave enough to provide you good specific useful feedback then listen thank them and then think about the feedback later. Never get defensive aim to get back at them or take any other negative action. Taking any of these steps will stop the feedback from that person and anybody else in your team. Although no feedback might seem easier getting no feedback is absolutely not in your best interests. All feedback is essential to learning quicker or learning full stop. Try to ask and get as much feedback as possible. Doing so will help you improve what you do faster which will help you your career team and company in so many ways. Ask for feedback often. So in summary getting feedback as a gift for all those that want to learn and improve at work. Learning how to deal with negative feedback from your boss or colleagues is important. Use the positive ways that we have covered to turn any negative feedback into a good learning opportunity for you and a way at getting better at what you do. Using these steps will also help you build up your resilience over time which again helps you remain positive and improve how you use negative feedback without taking it personally or getting down because you have received negative feedback. The six positive ways to deal with negative feedback at work that we have gone through are firstly don't assume the worst, second ask clarifying questions, third be appreciative of the feedback, fourth think what can I learn from this, fifth take positive action and then sixth ask some feedback regularly. If you have any questions on the six positive ways to manage negative feedback at work please leave them in the comments section below and I will get back to you. Thanks very much for watching and I look forward to speaking to you again soon.