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• Fear can debilitate.

• Criticism can create major fears.

• We can assist our youth to gain self-confidence and learn how to handle criticism in a positive manner.

“The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.”

Quote from Sven Goran Eriksson, a Swedish football manager.

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When striving for a successful life, we face many challenges.

One of our greatest fears is criticism. We want the acceptance and love of others.

 

Unkind and tough criticism during childhood can often have negative impacts. We have likely met adults who are haunted by such comments. It is inevitable as you attempt to achieve your life goals that you will face criticism.

We need to embrace criticism, instead of being defensive about it.

ELEMENTS FOR SUCCESS:

• Being able to balance confidence and make firm decisions;

• Remaining humble;

• Listening to other’s opinions;

• Embracing feedback and accepting it with humility

WHY HANDLING CRITICISM IS IMPORTANT:

We need to learn how to embrace criticism as it can:

• Hold you accountable for your mistakes;

• Help improve your skills.

• Offer you the opportunity to gain new insights and perspectives;

• Help you avoid future mistakes.

• Open up communication channels with others;

• Help you gain respect from others.

• Assist you gain to the trust of others.

Being able to accept criticism gracefully is essential for future success.

 

It is natural to fear criticism. We need to find ways to overcome this fear.

COPING WITH CRITICISM:

Support System:

• Having a support system can help you cope with harsh criticism.

• A coach, mentor or friend, can help you cope and mitigate your fear of criticism.

Self-awareness:

• Becoming self-aware is important, especially when it comes to handling criticism.

• The willingness to look inward helps you listen to feedback constructively rather than defensively.

Building Self-Confidence:

• Equips you to better handle criticism.

• Makes you more effective to contribute in the role you play in your organization.

• Improves communication with your peers.

• Builds your value and trust with your superiors.

Attitude:

• With the right attitude, it’s easy to realize that criticism isn’t the end of the world.

HUMILITY ENABLES ACCEPTANCE OF CRITICISM:

• Having a deep sense of humility enables us to accept criticism and feedback.

• Humility is a necessary quality of any excellent leader.

• It fosters improved team member performance.

• Leaders who are willing to accept criticism are better at leading in general.

PRACTICE:

• The best way to overcome your fear of criticism is to practice.

• We need to welcome criticism.

• This gives us opportunities to practice how to handle feedback.

• Fear of criticism stands in the way of our growth.

• Criticism is a healthy part of personal development.

In our coaching, we can assist our youth to embrace criticism. We can teach them how to give positive feedback instead of negative criticism. 

 

Learning this is a key to their future success.

Please share your ideas on how we can assist our youth to learn about facing fear and criticism.