Kat's Myth-Folklore 2018 Blog

The first article I read was " How to Give Feedback Without Sounding Like a Jerk ".  I loved this article.  In upper level courses, we are often required to peer review or give feedback in discussion groups.  You want to be helpful, but most people really don't want to be a jerk about it because they don't want to hear feedback from a jerk themselves.  This article talked about the "feedback sandwich" where you give praise, then the real feedback (negative stuff), then more positive thoughts so the person doesn't hate you.  While that sounds good, most people are going to see right through that.  The article goes through steps to do instead and has some pretty good advice. The second article I read was " Why so Many Managers Avoid Giving Praise ".  This one intrigued me and I know for sure I have been accused of not giving praise myself in my last job.  I was always of the belief that if you weren't getting yelled at or told what you did ...

Feedback can be good or disastrous, it all depends on how it's presented and the frame of mind of the receiver.  As someone who grew up constantly criticized, I fear negative feedback pretty much above all.  Mistakes were never tolerated in my house growing up.  It was straight A's or disapproval and criticism.  I had to clean house daily & my mother was not afraid of the white glove test (I'm 46, most college kids have probably never even heard of that!).   In school, I was good at straight A's.  I thrived on positive feedback & being basically a teacher's pet.  Until I got to about middle school, that is.  I learned to hide every paper and test that we got returned.  I cringed with the teacher would use my paper as an example or call out the grades as they handed back papers.  See, by then, the other kids had decided my good grades were something to ridicule me for.  Can you just imagine the stress-if I didn't get str...