As women, sometimes, we allow our emotions to control us. A lot of us would easily respond to the question above, that they welcome constructive criticism and truthfully, I would probably say the same but the reality of it is not all of us that actually take criticism with grace haha yup I said it.
Something happened to me yesterday, for some people that don’t know me, I am an Agile Delivery Management and work in the aviation industry.
I have always wanted more responsibility because I cannot be bored! I hate being bored. Sometimes, I am forever scouting for work to do, asking my colleagues if there’s anything I can help with.
Most importantly, I want to become a Senior Agile Delivery Manager and I have done my research on how to become one - one of them is the ability to manage multiple teams/projects.
Alas, I was given the opportunity to do so 😳 this is within 3 months of me being in my new job. I was excited and happily accepted the challenge.
Until, this faithful day when a line was said to me in constructive criticism manner and all the emotion in my body went angry hahaha like how dare this person say this to me, didn’t they realise the past few weeks have been challenging, can they at least acknowledge this but instead they came out with the statement I felt was unfair 🤔
Not long after that, I was convicted by the uncle HS (Holy Spirit) - he said “why am I upset, I was the one who wanted the responsibility and happily accepted. You don’t know what you don’t know. Why not see it as an opportunity to learn this area and add it to your skills toolbox 🧰 and the person didn’t mean any harm. It’s because they want the best for you and want you to grow and they see the potential in you- that’s why they were able to share that constructive criticism”
After this, I calmed down and accepted the criticism with grace and started searching for strategies and tools to use to improve in the area that have been mentioned.
Moral of the story, constructive criticism can be hard sometimes and it’s easy for us to say we accept criticism until we are actually in the situation.
Some lessons learnt:
Constructive Criticisms are there for your growth
Do not allow emotions to get the best of you
Accept the constructive criticism with grace
Ask Holy Spirit to help you accept constructive criticism because I know it’s not easy!
Ask for help on how to be better in the areas of the criticism
Do better
If you need help with anything I have shared today, why not join our Dear Woman! Tribe where you will have like minded women who will support you on your journey to becoming more and living a purposeful life.
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