How to Take and Give Feedback to Your Co-workers - The Muse

How to Take and Give Feedback to Your Co-workers - The MuseHow to Take and Give Feedback to Your Co-workers I always strive to be a levelheaded, open-minded, and poised professional.But often, when I receive unsolicited feedback from my co-workers, all I want to do is channel my inner five-year-old with an exaggerated eye roll and the ever-sassy retort, Youre not the boss of meMature, I know.But feedback from your peers is a whole different ballgame than feedback from your manager. Because its from people at the same professional level as you, it can feel more like a blow to your ego, or even a personal attack on your abilities.But to help your department produce the best work possible, and to constantly push yourself to improve, you cant keep ignoring that constructive criticism. And if you see sohonigweinhing that could be improved, you also need to be able to voice your feedback respectfully. To do that, here are some tips to reframe your perspective and learn how to effectively t ake- and give- peer feedback. Take it or Leave ItFirst, its important to realize that its not your job to give your co-workers feedback, and its not their responsibility to provide it to you. Thats the job of your manager.The difference is, because its not coming from your boss, technically youre free to take your co-workers advice or choose to disregard it. At the same time, that goes for them, too. You may suggest they do something differently, but that doesnt mean they have to change their ways. That doesnt mean you can- or should- ignore co-worker feedback. But it does give you the freedom to consider it carefully before implementing it. Which brings me toEvaluate it ObjectivelyIf you have the same urge to roll your eyes at a co-workers feedback as I do, you have to tread lightly- because that may be a sign that youre mixing your personal feelings with your professional responsibilities. In my case, there was a brand new team member who was giving me suggestions for how to write an absatzwirtschaft campaign email a little differently. Instead of considering her advice without bias, I factored in all sorts of other personal feelings- that she was new and relatively inexperienced, and we werent exactly friends. So, of course I didnt want to take her suggestions.Whatever your personal feelings are about that person, put them aside, and look at his or her suggestions objectively (heres some advice for taking criticism seriously, instead of personally). Would reworking a sentence in your email truly make it more effective? Would it really be a good idea to solicit expertise from another department to make your report more well-rounded?Forget who the feedback is coming from, and instead, simply ask yourself, Would this make my work better? If so, making the change is going to benefit everyone involved- yourself included.Be Willing to CompromiseAs a marketing writer, I- as you would expect- do quite a bit of writing for my companys website. However, I am not, by any means, an expert in SEO. When I first started writing blog posts, my co-worker, the departments digital marketing specialist, constantly gave me constructive criticism regarding my content and headlines. Immediately, I took offense. I put a lot of effort into carefully crafting my posts and titles, but time after time, hed approach me with suggestions to make my writing more SEO-friendly. But to me, optimizing that content meant compromising the quality of the work with less effective headlines and distracting keywordsBut at the end of the day, I had to take a step back and figure out how to compromise. After all, I was the writer, but he was the expert in SEO. To make our end product successful, we had to work together. So, I asked him to take some time to go over some basic SEO rules with me- that way I could more effectively weave keywords into my writing and formulate effective headlines from the get-go. In return, if I felt strongly about certain elements of my content that I didnt want to change, hed agree to leave them unaltered. You may not agree with every bit of feedback you get- but with an open mind, you may be able to find a way to make it work.Balance the Negative With the PositiveThis isnt to suggest that you should embrace my personal pet peeve of the compliment sandwich, where you insert constructive criticism in between two positive comments. Everyone sees through that approach, and eventually, every compliment you dole out is going to be met with a raised eyebrow- because surely theres a but coming right behind it. What I do mean is that if you choose to give your co-workers feedback, it shouldnt be all bad, all the time. If youre going to dish out some constructive criticism and suggest ways for them to improve, you also need to take notice of the things they do well- and readily point them out (with no constructive criticism strings attached). By doing this, youll create a positive team culture, where positive reinforcement is valued j ust as much as constructive criticism.Learning to take feedback from your peers can be a challenging and humbling experience, but with an open mind, you can use it to drive your department- and yourself- to new heights. Photo of co-workers talking courtesy of Shutterstock.