Overview

This post was inspired by few members here on Hive whom I interacted with and their experiences with giving and receiving criticism. I noticed that not everyone knows or understands how to give effective criticism and on the receiver end, not all members are able to effectively handle criticism.

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Now I could have easily used a different word than criticism and instead used the word feedback which has a more positive association, but I purposely avoided that. Here's the reason why: criticism does not have to be a negative thing! In fact, if you google the meaning of criticism, you will come across two definitions. The first one sounds a bit more negative but the second one is a more balanced approach to reflect on the things you did well vs things you can improve on.

Source: screenshot taken from S10

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Topic Breakdown

-Why do we need Criticism?
-How to Give Constructive Criticism on Hive
-How to be an Effective Receiver of Criticism on Hive
-Final Thoughts

Source
Photo by magnetme

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Why do we need Criticism?

Think about the last time you made a mistake on a post and received a comment about how to fix it. Did you agree with that comment? Did you end up making the change which was recommended? As someone who joined Hive not too long ago, I was glad to receive feedback on one of my posts about sourcing. That comment gave me some insight about how to properly source images and give credit where it is due. That moment made me realize few things:

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1. You can use constructive criticism to get new insights and perspectives about how to do something better.

2. You can use that as a learning opportunity to avoid that mistake for next time and elevate your content! This gives you an advantage to quickly fix your content for all future posts especially if you receive feedback earlier on.

3. It forced me to take a step back and think about my content and structure more critically. This helped me create a strategy about how I can try to make my posts more reader-friendly.

4. You may be able to adapt and overcome your shortcomings when you out in the effort to take criticism and stay open-minded to making changes for better posts. Think of it as information you need.

Source
Photo by cytonn_photography

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How to Give Constructive Criticism

First of all, lets understand the difference between constructive criticism vs personal attacks. Constructive criticism is more honest and specific about how you can put a recommended change into action. Pay attention to this example which I made up:

"Jim the formatting of your post is excellent! I suggest you write down the name of the person who took the photo below the image you took from unsplash.com. I see that you have provided a source link but adding the author name gives your post more credibility."

Source
Photo by Usman Yousaf

This example above first starts off by giving the person a genuine compliment about what they did right in their post. The second sentence gives a specific feedback about how to improve the way external images are sourced. The third sentence gives the person a clear reason about the benefit of making the change: it gives the post more credibility.

Now let’s look at an example of criticism which sounds more like a personal attack (judgemental, bashing, hateful).

"Jim you are very lazy since you did not even bother to cite the author’s name under the image you found from unsplash.com. Put some effort on citing properly. "
So, the first sentence of this example automatically assumes that Jim is lazy and that he is putting in no effort. This conversation will most likely end up becoming more hostile!

Source

Photo by Markus Spiske

Summary

1. Start off by pointing out what the person did right in their post

2. Make your feedback clear, concise, and specific.

3. Shift your focus away from the person. For example, instead of telling Jim "You should put some effort into citing properly", it can be re-worded to "The citation can use some fixing…"

4. Be conscious about how much feedback you give at one time. Due to different time zones, some people may be in more of a rush than others. For example, it could be snooze time for one person meanwhile another person is busy getting to work.

Its always best to ask the person whom you are giving a feedback to directly about whether they have time to discuss things. This method ensures that both parties are setting up some time to talk things out instead of one party waiting for another to respond.
This approach is for discord chats or dms.

Source
Photo by Alexander Shatov

How to be an Effective Receiver of Criticism on Hive

1. The first thing receivers need to understand are themselves. What is your first response to criticism? Do you get angry, frustrated, sad, or demotivated? Do you automatically begin disliking the person who gave you feedback? Do you become defensive or start losing confidence in your content?

2. Take time to reflect on these questions to understand how do you handle criticism and what factors or moments in life have conditioned you to react or behave a certain way.

3. Before you approach someone to get feedback about a post, ensure that you are in a positive or neutral mood first. You are more likely to not welcome any criticism or experience strong emotions if you had a bad day for example or had a recent argument. You might end up bringing out those emotions during your feedback session.

Source
Photo by Tim Mossholder

1. Second thing to note is who are you getting feedback from. There are times when you want a general feedback about a post (ex: structure, layout, images etc) or you may want very specific feedback about your post content. For example, Jimmy is a 3D artist who is looking to get feedback about his digital art. In this case, he is better off asking another experienced 3D digital artist for feedback. If Jimmy generally wanted an opinion about his art, he could ask another member who is not necessarily a 3D artist for feedback.

2. Pay attention to timing. Refer to the 4th point I made in How to Give Effective Feedback section and apply that same principle here.

3. When you are approaching someone on discord for feedback, I would recommend you tag them first in the general chat before you head over to their dms to ask for feedback. This is to ensure that they are given a heads up and they are comfortable enough to dm you. Its always best to not assume that all members are okay with receiving dms before being given a heads up.

4. Stay patient in the process of getting feedback. Don’t rush the person who is taking time away from their life to give you constructive criticism. Ask for clarification where it is needed and font forget to thank them for their time!

Source
Photo by Howie R

Final Thoughts

I can understand the hesitation of people on both sides (people giving criticism and receiving) since they may fear giving or asking for feedback due to chances of hostility or getting instantly disliked or shut down or because they don’t want to get judged.

Some situations may be inevitable but we can sometimes only control our own conduct in a situation. A fellow friend brought up a great point to me and said that sometimes if a person is not comfortable with giving their sincere feedback, just make it politely clear to the person who asked for your feedback and give some reasoning. For example you could say, "I am sorry but I am unable to give you feedback about this subject since I don’t understand it too well but let me see if I can find someone else who can help you out".

Please don’t get discouraged to ask for feedback or to give sincere feedback. I hope the tips above will help avoid miscommunication.

Note: all images are sourced from unsplash.com except for the first screenshot. All authors have been sourced.

Let me know what you think about the tips and whether you would like me to add anything else!