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4 reasons to immediately stop rejecting positive feedback
At any stage of our career, we are always looking for feedback. More specifically, we are looking for constructive feedback. We all want to comprehend what we are doing wrong and the areas we need to improve on. The desire for constructive feedback amplifies when you have imposter syndrome or are a perfectionist, or both.
However, there is a solid argument to direct most of your energy focusing on your strengths and shoring up your weakness, rather than ignoring your natural capabilities to concentrate on your fault. To describe this in another way, if you are naturally good at maths and analytical work, you need less energy to be very good at analytical work than at creative work. This doesn’t mean you can’t be good at different things. It just means you would need to invest more time, energy and effort.
Most career progress comes from people being exceptional at what you do. The recognition of this performance leads to progression. So, the question is,
Why are we ignoring the positive feedback so often?
Whether I am the one that is issuing the positive feedback, or I am listening to someone else give it. The majority of the time, the responses sound almost defensive. My personal favourite is the “Thanks…. BUT …..”. Before they go on to tell me their flaws, or what…