Feedback is one way to see ourselves through the eyes of a neutral person so we may look at areas in our lives needing improvement. Feedback can be a fast and effective reality check and it can help us refocus our efforts and put us back on track so we may achieve our goals. It is best to initiate the process of asking for feedback and making sure you are willing to accept honest and thoughtful comments as constructive criticism and an opportunity for professional development. Feedback from your internship supervisor is valuable but also feedback from colleagues can be as well. Peer feedback can be easier to process because of your relationship with them, but you want a balanced evaluation of you and your work. If you want feedback in a specific area of your work, you need to create a list of questions so the responses are accurate. Prepare a set of questions ahead of time as this will make your evaluator’s job easier and more likely to be more accurate.

8.4.1 Accepting Positive Feedback

Receiving feedback is good, whether positive or negative, because both help us improve ourselves. We can use this feedback to recognize our strengths, and discover areas to work on. Studies have shown that we are more likely to request corrective feedback than positive feedback, and that positive feedback is often downplayed or ignored by recipients (Simonian, 2022).

Positive feedback can help people be more engaged, drive their performance, and achieve success. Positive feedback focuses on our strengths, contributions we make to the workplace, and how valuable of an employee we are. Acknowledgement and praise for specific behaviors are rewards that help us know we are on the right track. Positive feedback builds trust and employee morale, motivates and engages, lower turnover rates and keeps employees happier.

Practice accepting positive feedback without downplaying it, or suggesting why you don’t deserve it. A simple response of “Thank you” is often enough, or even “I appreciate your feedback”.

8.4.2 Accepting negative feedback

So your feedback was not what you expected and now you are upset? The good news is that the feedback is not about you as a person but as you the employee. Negative feedback is about specific standards that define your work and how you performed these standards in a less than optimal manner. By learning to accept gracefully negative feedback we can strengthen our self-esteem and work on eliminating or lessening our weak areas.

When you are given your feedback, ask for clarification and use clarifying questions. The intern needs to know what was found to be negative and how is that behavior to be changed. Also make sure you understand the evaluator’s true intent. If you receive negative feedback, follow these five steps to help you get control of the situation and feel more empowered:

1. Recognize that negative feedback is not an attack.
2. Ask for regular feedback.
3. Give yourself time to process your emotions.
4. See the feedback from the evaluator’s perspective.
5. Handle constructive or destructive feedback accordingly.