Four key things: promote a good environment for honest feedback sharing, elicit feedback, accept feedback constructively and take action.
They're able to objectively evaluate negative and constructive feedback, accept what works, put it into practice, and leave the rest of it behind without developing hard feelings.
For example, one recent study found that using smiley face emoticons when delivering negative feedback to employees improved the chances of that feedback being accepted, so long as the feedback itself was specific.
The authors examined White and Black participants' emotional, physiological, and behavioral responses to same-race or different-race evaluators, following rejecting social feedback or accepting social feedback.
Bob didn't use the reframing to negate Harry's feedback; he accepted that he needed to be more assertive and hard-nosed in dealing with employees' issues.
Negative feedback is accepted only if it comes from a high-status source (Ilgen et al., 1979), and status changes both the perception of and the desire to respond to feedback (Ilgen et al., 1979; Greller, 1980).
When employees feel they're getting fair feedback, they accept it more willingly and work to improve performance.
They welcome feedback, and accept it without excuses.
Would nurses engage with the patient feedback and accept it as valid information about the quality of care they had provided?
One suggestion that is incredibly helpful (and usually increases the probability feedback will be accepted) is to have people ask for feedback.
Unfortunately, the quality of the feedback obtained by the web-based instrument as measured by several generally accepted feedback criteria did not parallel this increase.
