How to Respond to a Negative Situation
How to Respond to a Negative Situation
The sad truth is that "Life ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It can be a very mean and nasty place".
You often need to negotiate with a person who is giving you highly emotionalised negative feedback.
In real life, practically nobody uses the words, "Negative feedback". Instead they use other words to describe the same thing.
- Arguments
- Failure
- Breakdowns
- Criticism
- Rejection
- Defeat
- Blame
- Complaints
- Conflicts
And these negative situations tend to generate the corresponding negative emotions in both parties.
- Anger
- Upset
- Annoyance
- Frustration
- Stress
- Tears and
- Tantrums
If you are to make progress, you will need to know how to handle these negative emotions, (both yours and theirs). You need to move quickly to resolve the negative issue and to restore the relationship back to its original congenial state.
How would you do that?
In order to achieve these goals, you need to learn the following model:
Five steps to an experience
Your personal experience of any situation is not one thing. It is composed of five things fused together. Your personal experience of any event is process consisting of five parts.
- The objective facts of reality.
- The evidence of the facts as revealed by your five senses.
- The identification of the facts (or perhaps the MIS-identification of the facts).
- The subjective evaluation of the (mis) identified facts.
- Your emotional response to your "evaluation of the facts".
There are therefore two major sets.
- The objective set (comprising of the facts as identified by direct sense perception).
- The subjective set (comprising of the evaluations, opinions and judgements you make and your emotional responses to them).
Distinguish between the two forms of language; objective and subjective
Objective language
Objective language is the language of facts as revealed by direct sensory evidence and primary perception.
It is non-opinionated; non-evaluative; non-judgemental; non-emotional.
Subjective language
Subjective language is the opposite: it is the language of opinions, evaluations and judgements; it is highly emotionalised; it is about your personal feelings.
When people are in a negative state, they generally start their communication at the extreme right-hand side of the above model; by verbalising their negative emotions, derogatory opinions and by using highly subjective language.
Responding to Negative Situation Summary
Your task is to:
- Listen to their negative emotions and derogatory opinions without interruption.
- Empathise with them (without necessarily agreeing with anything).
- Separate the facts from their feelings.
- Separate the facts from their opinions.
- Act only on the evidence of the objective facts.
- Base your responses on a logical evaluation of all the available evidence of the facts.
- Recognise that emotions, have NO power to change the facts.
Definition: negative feedback
In business, negative feedback is a kind of feedback that tells a person where their work fell short. It states what went wrong, shows disapproval not praise, and urges change for better results. It is given after the act so the listener can learn. Remove any of these points and it stops being negative feedback.
Show CG4D Definition
- points out the gap between expected and actual results
- expresses disapproval rather than praise
- aims to prompt change or improvement
- delivered after the observed action
Article Summary
When faced with negative feedback, stay calm, listen without cutting in, show real empathy, strip the talk down to clear facts, then act on those facts alone; this five-step approach turns anger into understanding and moves both sides back to respect.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some questions that frequently get asked about this topic during our training sessions.
What is the difference between objective and subjective language?
Why should I listen without interrupting during negative feedback?
How can I show empathy without agreeing when I handle criticism?
What are the five steps to any experience in the model?
Do emotions change the facts of a conflict situation?
How do I separate facts from feelings in a heated discussion?
What first action helps calm anger during a feedback conversation?
Thought of something that's not been answered? Ask Us Today!
Did You Know: Key Statistics
CIPD Good Work Index 2023 shows that 38% of UK employees experienced interpersonal conflict at work in the previous 12 months. Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2023 found that employees who receive meaningful feedback at least weekly are 4× more likely to be engaged than those who get feedback only once a year or less.About the Author: Chris Farmer
Chris Farmer is the founder of the Corporate Coach Group and has many years' experience in training leaders and managers, in both the public and private sectors, to achieve their organisational goals, especially during tough economic times. He is also well aware of the disciplines and problems associated with running a business.
Over the years, Chris has designed and delivered thousands of training programmes and has coached and motivated many management teams, groups and individuals. His training programmes are both structured and clear, designed to help delegates organise their thinking and, wherever necessary, to improve their techniques and skills.
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