How To Recover From Negative Feedback

Put yourself in the other person’s shoes

Photo by A. L. on Unsplash

I stared at him in shock.

I could not believe he could say those words to me.

“You will never become a project manager. Stop wasting your time”, the Executive Director of HR and Customer Services said.

I had done everything I knew. I had achieved two project management certifications. But the Executive Director insisted I didn’t have the capacity to be a project manager.

What do you do when someone says you will never get what you want? Do you give up or do you keep moving?

I didn’t give up. I kept moving.

Over time, other people stepped in and tried to help but nothing worked. I was stuck in the engineering department for the rest of my life or so it seemed.

I had two options — to accept the negative feedback or to learn how to overcome it.

I overcame it.

Here are a few lessons I have learned on overcoming negative feedback.

Put yourself in the other person’s shoes

Who is giving you negative feedback? Where is he coming from? What’s his angle? If you try to understand the other party, you will not feel hurt…