As a leader or influencer of any kind, it is inevitable that you will be called upon to provide feedback on other people’s performance, work, attitude, etc. This may be part of the formal responsibilities required of your position, such as handling annual reviews or solving HR issues. But whether this is true for you or not, if you are respected and good at what you do, you will eventually be asked for your opinions on the creative or business-related work others have done. And that feedback or opinion will not always be positive.
I myself have been asked countless times to critique or provide feedback to songwriters and musicians, new authors or bloggers, web and graphic designers, novice entrepreneurs and a host of others. And while I’m certainly honored that such people hold my own work in high regard within each of these areas, it can get dicey when what I’m asked to critique is … well, just plain bad.
What do you do in these potentially awkward situations?
[Read more…] about The Uncritical Critique: How to Not Be Mean – Erik Tyler