Thursday, October 16, 2008

Handling Criticism

In the most recent edition of The Pastor's Coach newsletter, Dan Reiland makes the following observations about handling criticism.

Absorb criticism with grace: Taking criticism comes with the territory of leadership, how you receive it is a choice you make. He says: "... it takes less energy to absorb it than it does to fight it."

Learn from criticism and take action when you can: First listen for the obvious, second look for patterns to see if an urgent or slower reponse is necessary.

Ignore criticism when you need to: It's important to discern if it's a productive criticism or not. If not, ignore it. There is one proviso here, if the criticism is ongoing you will need to address the one doing the criticising.

Teach those who criticise when you have the opportunity: If you handle criticism well you can teach others.

The nature of criticism can be extremely draining, but if you receive it with grace, stay focused on the productive criticism, and ignore the rest, criticism can be a good thing and a blessing in disguise.

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