Welcome to Business Casual, where we share with you some of the fun, quirky, and fresh leadership chats that happen in the Lead Star offices.
Business Casual is more like lunch with friends than a formal interview. In each installment, we've captured our conversations about our own struggles and successes as we live our lives as leaders. We'll update this section regularly to give you candid, unfiltered thoughts on leadership, life, parenthood, balance, and many other topics.
We also invite you to fuel the dialogue by suggesting themes for future Business Casual segments. Please email Alison Carling at to tell us the issues that you'd like us to cover and whether or not you'd like to join us on Business Casual when we discuss your topic.
Constructive Criticism
The theme for this segment of Business Casual is Constructive Criticism. Here at Lead Star we know that constructive criticism is an essential tool of leadership. Yet it can be challenging to both deliver and receive. In this segment of Business Casual we explore why this is the case and best practices detailing how to deliver and receive constructive criticism.
We've provided the questions we used to start our dialogue below. Feel free to use them with your colleagues to spark a dialogue on the joys and pain of constructive criticism.
Here are the questions we discussed:
- What is your personal definition of constructive criticism and what do you think the key elements are?
- Other than at work, in what areas of your life does constructive criticism play a role?
- Are there any situations or circumstances where you have found difficulty in delivering constructive criticism?
- Does position or authority affect your comfort level with regard to delivering constructive criticism?
- When have you found it difficult to receive constructive criticism?
- When receiving constructive criticism what are important factors to keep in mind?
- What are the best practices in delivering and receiving constructive criticism in order to maintain a productive and healthy working relationship?
Dialogue Highlights:
You are welcome to download the transcript of our entire conversation, but here is a quick summary:
- The term constructive criticism has obvious negative connotations associated with it. However, if approached correctly, constructive criticism can be helpful insight specifically designed to aid improvement.
- Constructive criticism is only helpful when it contains specific action steps that can be taken for improvement.
- Although it is often called something else, we use constructive criticism in all areas of our lives, not just at work.
- Anxiety about delivering constructive criticism comes out of the fear of not knowing how the person receiving it will react.
- It is important to be able to deliver constructive criticism to persons in positions of authority over you. You must approach this from a perspective of providing valuable insight that can be used to assist them in developing.
- Ego has no place when you are either delivering or receiving constructive criticism.
- To ensure a productive work environment, managers must ensure that they are providing continuous feedback that is balanced. Positive feedback is just as important as the negative.
(152 kb PDF)
