Treat Criticism as Good Friction for Growth

We all have faced criticism whether it is on the professional or personal fronts. It won’t be a lie, when I say accepting criticism was difficult, as compared to compliments.

Many years ago, I was working for an automotive company’s research division, engaged in designing plant floor IT systems to predict machine failures. It was in the very early stages of AI. Our project team got a lot of criticism on our thought process and vision. Personally I was exposed to a lot more criticism than I could handle.

My client very skillfully converted a lot of criticism in a constructive way to inspire me further. Finally we designed a much better solution than we anticipated and thanks to critics. This pilot scaled to many manufacturing plants.

This project changed my mindset about handling criticism and converting that to your success. I learnt not to resist criticism.

When someone provides you with tough feedback, if a project isn’t received with the enthusiasm you expected, or your review didn’t go as planned, you should take the opportunity to get curious and view the situation as ‘good friction.’ This is where growth, development, and breakthroughs happen.

Remember It takes both sun and rain for a flower to grow!!