The dictionary meaning of the term criticism has been defined in the following manner:

• the act of giving your opinion or judgment about the good or bad qualities of something or someone, especially books, films, etc.:
• the act of passing judgment as to the merits of anything. … the act or art of analyzing and evaluating or judging the quality of a literary or artistic work, musical performance, art exhibit, dramatic production, etc. a critical comment, article, or essay; critique.

Over a period of time, the criticism has been used for giving negative feedback or finding faults. For the positive feedback, the term used is “Constructive criticism”. Criticism can occur in any area of human life. It can start from as early as kindergarten days or early school life. How people go about criticising can vary a great deal and its impact can be positive or negative on human being. Negative criticism can cause irreparable damage to our self -esteem. Criticism specially in the work place effects the productivity of individual and may result in the degradation of morale of the department or group.

Let’s imagine a situation where you have been assigned a very important project and you have spent most of your time in the presentation and your upgradation in the organization may depend on the presentation. You are really looking forward for it. Suddenly, you find that your superior or your co-worker may not like the presentation and may be open to tell you that the presentation was not up to the mark and they had anticipated more from you and your chances of upgradation seems to be fading away. The criticism can be through body language where you find that the members feels withdrawn or may even start to look at their phone and may be verbal where it may be told to you that more was expected from you. The presentation may be discussed out of the board room or the presentation room.  The criticism may affect your sanity and self-worth. In most of the cases, you may find yourself withdrawn.

Criticism may not be agreeable but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function of pain in the human body (Cited from Black Lotus app).   Constructive criticism helps you to improve at any sphere of life including your workplace. A study by the Harvard Business Review found that constructive criticism may be the best way to get the attention of someone who has become unproductive or complacent. Accepting criticism at work can be an important step toward increasing your efficiency and professional success. There are three golden principles as specified in the Black Lotus App which helps you to be in peace in the face of criticism. In the face of criticism, following questions can be reviewed internally.

Is the criticism beneficial?

Whenever we are criticised, ego comes into play and we become defensive even before the other person could complete his / her sentence. We generally tend to believe that we know everything about us and what we are doing. Anytime we are challenged, it shakes our self -belief it takes us off-guard. Some people react sharply to it and some people withdraw. However, to deal with the criticism is to ask question to yourself “Is it beneficial?” If the criticism is beneficial and helps you to improve, it prudent to pay attention to it. A conscious choice can be made regarding the accepting or rejecting the criticism. This approach would help to accept criticism without feeling very bad about it.

Whether what is being said is true

Whenever criticism is not beneficial or not constructive, it can sound like attack on you, your credibility and your talents. It is quite natural to withdraw or react violently (may not be verbal always) to the criticism. We are quick to dismiss our criticizer and dismiss him / her. But what if the person is stating the truth? It is better to listen to the other person however unpleasant or bitter it may sound. The other person is under no moral obligation to surrogate their statement. If we listen intently, even though it is not beneficial we can’t go wrong by reflecting over it. The food of thought may help us to get better in what we want to do.

Is the intention of the criticiser noble?

Sometimes it may be a tricky situation whether there is no truth nor the criticism may be beneficial to us. In such situation, it may be worth to see whether the intention of the criticiser is noble. If their intentions are not bad and they are your well-wisher, it may be better to chose compassion over reaction and let the matter go. It may not be the right time to make them see your perspective. You may deal with the situation some other time.

At the fundamental level, criticism is negative emotion and it may be expressed violently. But sometimes it may be inevitable to provide. How to give constructive criticism in such situation? It is important to understand the difference between condemning the other person and offering constructive criticism. The following example would help to show the difference and help to know as to how to offer constructive criticism.

For example, if a person is trying hard but not able to accomplish his / her objective or goal, condemning the person would be saying “What’s wrong with you? You never seem to win?

Constructive criticism would be more like saying “I think you really need to work hard on your shortcoming (mentioning the short coming). You may have lost the deal because of your shortcoming. And a positive feedback would be mentioning first the positive aspects of the person and then mentioning the short coming and method to improve the shortcoming.

A feedback culture is important because it provides it provides regular and consistent feedback regarding how the employee are performing and what is expected from them. Without the feedback culture, it may give a false satisfaction that everything is fine and no further improvement is needed.